Richie Porte Discussion Thread.

[greenedge]

Re: Re:

i think if he doesn't fight back in this giro, he will never lead a team in a grand tour. which would be incredibly sad to me

and indeed to me he seemed that he didn't bother to chase at all, i mean wtf?

In my opinion he has lost the momentum he had..

Not sure he has the mental and physical ressources to come back this time around...

Has he ever come back from being poor momentum like now?

Better to take a breather and rebuild form for TDF...

TDF Stage 9 2013. Proved he was the 4th best climber for Alpe D Huez, Ventoux and Semnoz.

 

[greenedge]

Re:

Did you Porte haters actually see the crash go down? One Sky rider was leading Richie and he strayed right so as not to fall and ended up crashing into Porte.

I may be wrong, but I thought it was contact with that Astana rider that brought him down

 

[greenedge]

Re:

I dont kick a man when he is down but is is just funny how some fans are still calling all these situations a bad luck.

It is a bad luck when you lose one GT due to some unfortunate event, but when you are always involved in every accident, it is not about luck anymore.

As others said, you need to be a real racer capable of being focused for 3 weeks and have a real talent to avoid these situations in order to win a real GT race and Porte is just not that.

He had a puncture on one stage, and one crash
Contador's crashed in 2 of his last 3 GT's, yet your'e not mentioning that.

 

[greenedge]

Re: Re:

i'm no sky fan, but i like richie. i expect aru to crack hard and bleed several minutes pretty soon, probably tomorrow.
there's no way uran will be able to hang with porte in the mountains next week.
.

Porte was impresive in his first Giro, but he has never again showed the potential to be in the podium. Rigo used to be the last domestique in the mountains for Wiggo or Froome when Porte and Henao were there as well.

Was he? At 203 T-A Richie was at P-N, Giro for Wiggins because he was better than Henao/ ended up 2nd. 2012 he didn't ride the TDF and I can't recollect whether he helped Froome a lot at the 2013 Vuelta.
One example is Dauphinie 2011, but Richie was with Alberto. Another is Paris-Nice in 2012, which seems the only overt instance.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

i think if he doesn't fight back in this giro, he will never lead a team in a grand tour. which would be incredibly sad to me

and indeed to me he seemed that he didn't bother to chase at all, i mean wtf?

In my opinion he has lost the momentum he had..

Not sure he has the mental and physical ressources to come back this time around...

Has he ever come back from being poor momentum like now?

Better to take a breather and rebuild form for TDF...

TDF Stage 9 2013. Proved he was the 4th best climber for Alpe D Huez, Ventoux and Semnoz.

Exactly.

All so sad for Richie. And if his knee is ***, then ***.

But if it isn't?

I hope that he can win this time trial, which if he's healthy is a possibility. And if not that, then at least a decent showing with a time that's competitive with his previous gc rivals.

If the knee is bad enough that he can't top ten the ITT, then he should rest up for the TDF.

Otherwise he should stay at the Giro and fight. A top ten finish in Milan after all of this would be highly commendable. And if he is still healthy, then a top five finish is not out of the question.

Richie should be thinking, "My best finish is seventh in a GT; let's better that."

And if he can go with Contador on the Mortirolo and Finestre, then that's proof that he's GT leader material. The rest has mostly been (poor decision to stop on the wrong side of the road on stage 10) bad luck.

 

[movingtarget]

Aru won't win the overall as he will lose big in the TT. Uran and Kreuziger are looking better for a podium spot. Yes Porte has had bad luck which has not been helped by his team's total inability to function when he had a mechanical incident. Not being there quickly enough to support him, giving him a bike that was much too big, letting him take a wheel from another team's rider. All of these incidents have ruined Porte's race but of course if his knee is badly hurt he won't start the TT. It seems that Sky is jinxed in the Giro but they really should be smarter with their support of the riders. They seem to be going out of the way to make things harder for Porte not easier. Contador has also had bad luck but his team seem much more professional at dealing with it.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

Aru won't win the overall as he will lose big in the TT. Uran and Kreuziger are looking better for a podium spot. Yes Porte has had bad luck which has not been helped by his team's total inability to function when he had a mechanical incident. Not being there quickly enough to support him, giving him a bike that was much too big, letting him take a wheel from another team's rider. All of these incidents have ruined Porte's race but of course if his knee is badly hurt he won't start the TT. It seems that Sky is jinxed in the Giro but they really should be smarter with their support of the riders. They seem to be going out of the way to make things harder for Porte not easier. Contador has also had bad luck but his team seem much more professional at dealing with it.

maybe because of the collective of experience in TS team compare to Sky?

 

[MotorRouleur]

And Nieve, who is very similar in size to Porte, rode on finishing in the same time as Contador. Is Nieve riding for himself or what? Didn't stop on stage 10 when Porte punctured too. Don't renew his contract.

I always watch for the Plan B of teams, and with Sky, wondering if Konig or Nieve would get the call if Porte had to abandon, or lost a lot of time. They both did ok in last year's Tour (Konig 7th riding for NetApp, and Nieve 18 for Sky), and Nieve was still fighting on Stage 19 when Porte gave up. Now, after today's 1:40 loss, Konig sits 15th at 4:24, not that far ahead of Porte but he now should be looking for a stage win, not GC placement.

Nieve hasn't cracked top 20 so far, so he should be working for Porte, not his own ambitions.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

Re: Re:

i'm no sky fan, but i like richie. i expect aru to crack hard and bleed several minutes pretty soon, probably tomorrow.
there's no way uran will be able to hang with porte in the mountains next week.
it's very likely that everyone sitting in the top 10 right now will get shelled. there will be a stage next week where bertie and richie ride away together leaving everyone else MINUTES behind. i expect aru will be the best of the rest.
i give porte a 75% chance of being on the podium, probably in second place. if the pistolero crashes or cracks, he could still win it.
let's see how well he responds tomorrow before declaring his race over.

I can't see how you're figuring Aru is going to crack and lose minutes unless you're referring to the itt tomorrow. I accept Aru's statement that he neglected to eat enough considering his youth and inexperience. Also when has Contador cracked in a grand tour and lost minutes?

i agree contador is the least likely to have a bad day. he is a human being though (i think), even if he often seems infallible. it could happen. i doubt it will. also, he has been known to crash out.

my gut tells me aru is going to lose a large chunk of time tomorrow, and then quite a bit more next week. i think he will still podium.

Couldn't help yourself.

err..ehhh... ok. not sure what that means. i'm not the one suggesting everywhere that the race is over and that contador is unbeatable and will never ever crack. this is not the contador thread so we can move the discussion over there if you want to discuss it further.
the point i was making is that the race is not over, the rest of this giro is super hard and anything can happen. it's up to porte to decide if he wants to do something epic and prove himself as a gt contender, or whether, as too many suggest, he should pack it in and play domestique to froome in the tour.

 

[MotorRouleur]

Richard Porte has slowly grown from a super-domestique to one the world's best one-week stage racers, and he's fortified that record in this Giro.

 

[cellardoor]

If he's not injured he should continue. He can potentially win the time trial today and demonstrate that he's able to hold his own in the big mountain stages of the final week. The fact that he's not a major threat on GC anymore may mean he's given latitude to sneak away and pick up a stage win in the mountains. He hasn't had a bad day "leg-wise" yet and if carries that through to the end it will put to bed the "always has a bad day" bad smell that hangs around him. I don't think it will do his market value any good to give up and focus on the tour. At present he hasn't been truly dropped by Contador (I don't really count uphill sprints) and if he's able to match Contador in the TT and mountains then that suggests he does have what it takes to win and only bad luck (and maybe bad team support) have stopped him.

 

[SeriousSam]

Porte has been second to Contador so far, stronger than Aru. If he wins the TT and does well in the mountains, he'll have made a very strong case for GC leadership regardless of where he ends up.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Actually the stage is set for a legendary comeback. If he does it, it will be history. Pantani also used to be 3-5 min down by this time but then in the mountains drop everybody and gain minutes

 

[SlickMongoose]

Re:

He hasn't had a bad day "leg-wise" yet and if carries that through to the end it will put to bed the "always has a bad day" bad smell that hangs around him.

This year it's his brain that bonked, instead of his body....

 

[cineteq]

Not all is lost for Porte. If he concentrates on winning, he can easily put 3+ min on Contador today. Then pull a Landis on one of the final mountain stages. Easy peasy.

 

[Marco Pantani]

Not all is lost for Porte. If he concentrates on winning, he can easily put 3+ min on Contador today. Then pull a Landis on one of the final mountain stages. Easy peasy.

Exactly, he's got the Giro in his pocket already, easily.

 

[SeriousSam]

Ok then, slave for Froome for the rest of his career.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Expecting Porte to go easy today and target stage wins rather than a podium tbh. When do the leaders set off?

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

Expecting Porte to go easy today and target stage wins rather than a podium tbh. When do the leaders set off?

You called it.Konig leader now I guess.

 

[rm7]

Crashes or not, this guy is suited for 1 week stage races. He has been looking worse every day, and i dont think he'll ever be good for 3 weeks.

 

[DBotero]

ITT done and dusted,horrible performance,maybe he's injured or just didn't give a *** anymore Nightmare Giro for Little Richie,if he continues he might consider a stage win.I think the team will go on stage hunt,Konig is not in shape for GC battle judging that he was dropped everywhere.

 

[BYOP88]

I guess that top 10 finish in his debut GT was nothing more than a fluke.

 

[Pippo_San]

Honestly you couldn't expect anything more from him. It was clear he completely dropped his will to fight on yesterday.

 

[JRanton]

Assuming he wasn't injured that was a pathetic effort. The podium was still possible with a good ride today and he was saying before the stage that he wanted to win it.

 

[Kokoso]

ITT done and dusted,horrible performance,maybe he's injured or just didn't give a **** anymore Nightmare Giro for Little Richie,if he continues he might consider a stage win.I think the team will go on stage hunt,Konig is not in shape for GC battle judging that he was dropped everywhere.

Don't know about König, he was really dropped only in 4th stage a lot, that was first week. Things could look different now and TT maybe hints on that.