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Richie Porte Discussion Thread.

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In which year will Porte win the GT Treble?

  • He will only manage the double

    Votes: 9 100.0%

  • Total voters
    9
Mar 14, 2009
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Re: Re:

Carols said:
JRanton said:
Carols said:
Stick a fork in Lil' Richie, he's done.

Konig looks like the real deal though!! I like him even if he is on Sky. I hope they don't ruin him.

Meh. Konig has been ok but he loses time every time the top guys start attacking.

Yeah he is 27 already, I thought he was younger.....

27 but still a "rookie". This is his only 3rd GT and we all know that he finished in Top10 in those previous two and he is in good shape to be the one of very few that finished in Top10 in all 3 GT in their first participation if he can manage the Top10 here.

Yeah, he is not explosive, but he is smart enough to ride at his own pace without blowing up :cool:
 
Mar 13, 2015
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irondan said:
+27:07 to Landa. Wow, he really fell apart the past couple days. I'm sure he'll be firing up the motorhome and pointing it towards Monaco tonight.

Yep...he'll call up Froomie, drink away the sorrows with some mint juleps, prance around to some boy band music and try to forget about May...
 
Mar 14, 2009
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Mongolian Mayhem said:
irondan said:
+27:07 to Landa. Wow, he really fell apart the past couple days. I'm sure he'll be firing up the motorhome and pointing it towards Monaco tonight.

Yep...he'll call up Froomie, drink away the sorrows with some mint juleps, prance around to some boy band music and try to forget about May...

Boy band? Naaaah!

He is joining this band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwBgSOCTGLw

:D
 
Jul 19, 2010
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SeriousSam said:
HelloDolly said:
Being the best domestique in SKY does not necessarily make you the best bet for GC in a GT
It amazes me how people think because you can climb & TT you can lead and win a GT....

Climbing and TTing are 2 out of the 3 attributes you need to do well in GTs. Porte was really unlucky this Giro. Depending on what exactly caused him to have such a poor time trial, he might still be a terrific time triallist. I mean, why are people praising Aru so much? Up to the TT, Aru was weaker than Porte.

To be fair, he wasn't the only one who's unlucky though. Contador dislocated his shoulder and injured his leg. He crashed twice already and lost all his lead advantage. He suffered injury but he is still fighting. Uran has been sick since the start of the Giro, he is still fighting. Richie's puncture got worse because none of his team was around him to give him the wheel (sky made the bad luck from bad to worse w/ how the team supported him). As soon as, he was down 5 minutes, he crashed with Contador, instead of getting bike from his team mate, he just fiddled w/ his bike. So clearly, at that stage, he has already given up.

Up until now, none of the contender this year has the advantage of being spare from bad luck (except Aru). And ironically, none of them has nothing to do with their leg either. But how you deal with your bad luck is determined how strong you are mentally. Cadel Evan is an good example. Was he holding the yellow jersey then he crashed and fractured his elbow or something (can't remember)? And he finally finished outside podium? All years, we saw riders overcome bad luck and set back in GT. But if you are GC contender, don't you think you should at least try to finish it or improve his position. Sure it means nothing probably, but that fighting back spirit might teach him something about himself.
 
Re: Re:

Jelantik said:
SeriousSam said:
HelloDolly said:
Being the best domestique in SKY does not necessarily make you the best bet for GC in a GT
It amazes me how people think because you can climb & TT you can lead and win a GT....

Climbing and TTing are 2 out of the 3 attributes you need to do well in GTs. Porte was really unlucky this Giro. Depending on what exactly caused him to have such a poor time trial, he might still be a terrific time triallist. I mean, why are people praising Aru so much? Up to the TT, Aru was weaker than Porte.

To be fair, he wasn't the only one who's unlucky though. Contador dislocated his shoulder and injured his leg. He crashed twice already and lost all his lead advantage. He suffered injury but he is still fighting. Uran has been sick since the start of the Giro, he is still fighting. Richie's puncture got worse because none of his team was around him to give him the wheel (sky made the bad luck from bad to worse w/ how the team supported him). As soon as, he was down 5 minutes, he crashed with Contador, instead of getting bike from his team mate, he just fiddled w/ his bike. So clearly, at that stage, he has already given up.

Up until now, none of the contender this year has the advantage of being spare from bad luck (except Aru). And ironically, none of them has nothing to do with their leg either. But how you deal with your bad luck is determined how strong you are mentally. Cadel Evan is an good example. Was he holding the yellow jersey then he crashed and fractured his elbow or something (can't remember)? And he finally finished outside podium? All years, we saw riders overcome bad luck and set back in GT. But if you are GC contender, don't you think you should at least try to finish it or improve his position. Sure it means nothing probably, but that fighting back spirit might teach him something about himself.

If we mention these mental weaknesses then we must also say that he crashed in Paris-Nice on the penultimate day, which could have cost him the win, only to pick himself up and win the race the next day.
 
Jul 19, 2010
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Re: Re:

JRanton said:
Jelantik said:
SeriousSam said:
HelloDolly said:
Being the best domestique in SKY does not necessarily make you the best bet for GC in a GT
It amazes me how people think because you can climb & TT you can lead and win a GT....

Climbing and TTing are 2 out of the 3 attributes you need to do well in GTs. Porte was really unlucky this Giro. Depending on what exactly caused him to have such a poor time trial, he might still be a terrific time triallist. I mean, why are people praising Aru so much? Up to the TT, Aru was weaker than Porte.

To be fair, he wasn't the only one who's unlucky though. Contador dislocated his shoulder and injured his leg. He crashed twice already and lost all his lead advantage. He suffered injury but he is still fighting. Uran has been sick since the start of the Giro, he is still fighting. Richie's puncture got worse because none of his team was around him to give him the wheel (sky made the bad luck from bad to worse w/ how the team supported him). As soon as, he was down 5 minutes, he crashed with Contador, instead of getting bike from his team mate, he just fiddled w/ his bike. So clearly, at that stage, he has already given up.

Up until now, none of the contender this year has the advantage of being spare from bad luck (except Aru). And ironically, none of them has nothing to do with their leg either. But how you deal with your bad luck is determined how strong you are mentally. Cadel Evan is an good example. Was he holding the yellow jersey then he crashed and fractured his elbow or something (can't remember)? And he finally finished outside podium? All years, we saw riders overcome bad luck and set back in GT. But if you are GC contender, don't you think you should at least try to finish it or improve his position. Sure it means nothing probably, but that fighting back spirit might teach him something about himself.

If we mention these mental weaknesses then we must also say that he crashed in Paris-Nice on the penultimate day, which could have cost him the win, only to pick himself up and win the race the next day.

good point. But his metal strength shelf-life expiration date is only for a week racing :D
 
Aug 31, 2012
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Re:

BigMac said:
ay_114689300.jpg
 
Re: Re:

JRanton said:
spanky wanderlust said:
we can officially stop discussing rp as a potential future gc contender.
still a great rider... over 10 days, tops.
and a great domestique for an elite gc guy.

I'm 90% in agreement. There's still that little bit of doubt due to the crash and the injuries sustained from it.

I agree with this - because we are not the ones injured there is still some doubt in Porte's favour to still have genuine gc potential. But what has concerned me is how Richie responds when placed under adversity. Yes his knee may be legitimately injured but it does seem like he's thrown in the towel mentally.

On the slip side neither do we know the true extent of Contador's shoulder dislocation - it does not seem to have affected his power at all and Tinkov seemed to be playing it up to maximise publicity.

But to win a Grand Tour there is always some things that don't go to plan. Even in 2011 when Contador was fatigued from the Giro and also hurt his knee in the early stages he still fought on, lit up the race in the Alpes and did a great TT on the penultimate stage of that race despite having little to race for at that point.
 

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