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
Ruudz0r

Ruudz0r

Jun 9, 2011
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Mollema was 17 not 19 (or 16 and joined a team when he was 17, not 100% sure).

Porte was to old to do the big U23 races in Europe and well that kinda logical when you start when your 21 now isnt it?

People keep saying he came out of nowhere and has never done anything before he turned pro or even before he went to Sky which is both ridiculous. He has won a lot of races in his last year in Australia and yes the competition there is not as strong as it is in Europe, but he had to show himself to get a contract and that is exactly what he did.

In 2009 he also rode quite a lot in Italy in the national and 1.2 races and did very well there aswell.

I know people want to joke about Sky and say they came all out of nowhere, but its simply not the case with Porte. He has always been a big talent.
 
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theyoungest

Jan 11, 2010
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Ruudz0r said:
Mollema was 17 not 19 (or 16 and joined a team when he was 17, not 100% sure).
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He was 18 when he joined a cycling club, he rode his first race in 2005.

I know people want to joke about Sky and say they came all out of nowhere, but its simply not the case with Porte. He has always been a big talent.
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Of course, Sky didn't sign him in his breakthrough Giro for nothing. But when he won the TT in Romandie a few weeks before, that was really a massive surprise for everyone, just look back at the forum thread which I can't be bothered to do.

Still, in that Giro he climbed at the level of a Kruijswijk or Samoilau, nowhere near what he's currently doing at Sky.

roundabout said:
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=5298
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I thought he said 'first pro year'. Which he did.
 
Ruudz0r

Ruudz0r

Jun 9, 2011
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theyoungest said:
He was 18 when he joined a cycling club, he rode his first race in 2005.


Of course, Sky didn't sign him in his breakthrough Giro for nothing. But when he won the TT in Romandie a few weeks before, that was really a massive surprise for everyone, just look back at the forum thread which I can't be bothered to do.

Still, in that Giro he climbed at the level of a Kruijswijk or Samoilau, nowhere near what he's currently doing at Sky.


I thought he said 'first pro year'. Which he did.
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Porte won Time Trials in Italy in the year before he turned pro. He already got 3rd in the Australian Nationals the year before he turned pro. So it was really not that surprising.

90% of the forum here never heard of Nathan Earle before he signed for SKY for either, while he has been the best guy in the Australian Nationals series this year. Or probably right now 95% doesnt know about Jack Haig either (who has decided to wait 1 more year before he turns pro). Just because people dont know whats going on in some races because they are not posted on PCS or CQ doesnt mean you cant see things comming.

The Giro were his first "real" mountains. You learn climbing by actually trainings on climbs. Its kinda logical that he improved a lot since then.
 
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theyoungest

Jan 11, 2010
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Ruudz0r said:
Porte won Time Trials in Italy in the year before he turned pro. He already got 3rd in the Australian Nationals the year before he turned pro. So it was really not that surprising.

90% of the forum here never heard of Nathan Earle before he signed for SKY for either, while he has been the best guy in the Australian Nationals series this year. Or probably right now 95% doesnt know about Jack Haig either (who has decided to wait 1 more year before he turns pro). Just because people dont know whats going on in some races because they are not posted on PCS or CQ doesnt mean you cant see things comming.

The Giro were his first "real" mountains. You learn climbing by actually trainings on climbs. Its kinda logical that he improved a lot since then.
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No need to be pedantic about it. Riis was the only manager interested in signing him, even if he did have some good results (like winning the TT in the Baby Giro). The Australian scene doesn't mean that much. Nathan Haas was the best rider there a few years ago, he's not exactly storming the pro scene, is he?

As for Porte's climbing, come on, the step he made since moving to Sky has been massive. May I remind you that Contador won the Giro 2011 practically on his own? Guess who was on his team back then?

Porte was identified by Aldo Sassi as a massive talent though. Which, apparently, he is.

roundabout said:
What exactly are you arguing here?
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Out of interest, I looked up Froome's results from his first pro year, not before.
 
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theyoungest

Jan 11, 2010
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roundabout said:
Oh, let's haggle over what a pro is. That will surely invalidate the original point.
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I'm only explaining why I didn't look at espoir years... you're right, Froome was a massive talent, as evidenced from that time he beat Mollema in the Giro delle Regioni without any context whatsoever.
 
Ruudz0r

Ruudz0r

Jun 9, 2011
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theyoungest said:
No need to be pedantic about it. Riis was the only manager interested in signing him, even if he did have some good results (like winning the TT in the Baby Giro). The Australian scene doesn't mean that much. Nathan Haas was the best rider there a few years ago, he's not exactly storming the pro scene, is he?

As for Porte's climbing, come on, the step he made since moving to Sky has been massive. May I remind you that Contador won the Giro 2011 practically on his own? Guess who was on his team back then?

Porte was identified by Aldo Sassi as a massive talent though. Which, apparently, he is.


Out of interest, I looked up Froome's results from his first pro year, not before.
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2011 was a very weak year for Porte performance wise indeed. Also way worse then his 2010 which were both with Riis. I dont know what was wrong with him that year, maybe overtrained, maybe personal problems, maybe a disease, I dont know what was wrong with him that year. But to me it seems that 2011 was more of an exception then any other year.

Haas was indeed dominating aswell, but its hard to compare different years . Besides that you certainly cant compare 2 riders in how they cope with a new living environment, no family, a new team etc. And even if that stays partly the same there are also major European talents who were super strong in the U23 category but did do nothing among the pro's.
Haas also showed he could do it between the pro's though in 2011. As he won the Japan Cup and the Sun Tours (even though most of the pro's were probably not in super condition, but winning is never easy).
 
Ruudz0r

Ruudz0r

Jun 9, 2011
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Btw, Im not trying to say Porte was the biggest talent there was. Im just saying he certainly did not come out of nowhere and he showed plenty before joining SKY. As many here seem to say he never showed anything and he had no talent before joining SKY.
 
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karlboss

Mar 13, 2009
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Ruudz0r said:
Btw, Im not trying to say Porte was the biggest talent there was. Im just saying he certainly did not come out of nowhere and he showed plenty before joining SKY. As many here seem to say he never showed anything and he had no talent before joining SKY.
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I started by saying he was a climber that was made and not a natural, along with naming a number of others. Once he hit a pond big enough to find where he sits it was high on the TT rankings top 10 at least and low so far as climbers are concerned I doubt top 100. From that beginning he's now in the top 10 climbers in the world.
Of course one can argue that if he has high sustainable power and always has, it's just a matter of losing a little weight to become a climber, but he certainly wasn't a natural climber when compared to let's go with a number of Colombians kicking around right now.
 
Pentacycle

Pentacycle

May 28, 2012
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If you're going to compare every climber to riders like Quintana it's hard to find any good pure climber. It's always struck me that a guy, who was listed as 63kg and with an engine that delivered him 4th at the Worlds TT, wasn't a great climber. He's just Levi 2.0. Talansky has the same characteristics.
 
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karlboss

Mar 13, 2009
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Pentacycle said:
If you're going to compare every climber to riders like Quintana it's hard to find any good pure climber. It's always struck me that a guy, who was listed as 63kg and with an engine that delivered him 4th at the Worlds TT, wasn't a great climber. He's just Levi 2.0. Talansky has the same characteristics.
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Not only Quintana, but Henao, Uran, Betancur are the obvious ones, then you'll drop down to others who have on occaision climbed MTFs with the absolute best like Duarte and not only colombians, throw in Pinot and Bardet and the list continues.

Perhaps it was surprising at his weight and obvious TT strength he wasn't a better climber, but the fact remains he wasn't a climber in 2010, nor 2011. Maybe in those years he had the ability but kept trying too hard to follow early accelerations and blew up finishing well down.
Leipheimer is a reasonable comparison, as are the others i mentioned, in my earlier post. Talansky doesn't appear to have the engine Porte has, he has been more consistently even as a climber and TTer.
 
42x16ss

42x16ss

May 23, 2009
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theyoungest said:
No need to be pedantic about it. Riis was the only manager interested in signing him, even if he did have some good results (like winning the TT in the Baby Giro). The Australian scene doesn't mean that much. Nathan Haas was the best rider there a few years ago, he's not exactly storming the pro scene, is he?
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Bingo. Haas did it with climbing results just as impressive as Porte's NRS results too. Porte always had a better TT though. It will be interesting to see how Nathan Earle goes this year, as he had a similarly strong domestic season to Porte and Haas' last years with Houn Salmon/Genesys.

theyoungest said:
As for Porte's climbing, come on, the step he made since moving to Sky has been massive. May I remind you that Contador won the Giro 2011 practically on his own? Guess who was on his team back then?

Porte was identified by Aldo Sassi as a massive talent though. Which, apparently, he is.
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Yes, Sassi did see Porte as a big talent when Will Walker introduced him - but iirc that was for the classics and one week races not high mountains in GT's.
 
42x16ss

42x16ss

May 23, 2009
10,245
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Ruudz0r said:
Btw, Im not trying to say Porte was the biggest talent there was. Im just saying he certainly did not come out of nowhere and he showed plenty before joining SKY. As many here seem to say he never showed anything and he had no talent before joining SKY.
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I'm sure most agree there. Porte's transformation is 10x more believable than Froome pre 11 Vuelta and Wigans' pre 09 TdF (climbing at least - TT was good) combined.
 
VeloHuman

VeloHuman

Jun 25, 2013
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Hard to believe he's already 29. In the heart of his prime though, I'm thinking he does more big things this year.
 
Pippo_San

Pippo_San

Sep 2, 2011
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All hail the great winner of the Giro 2014.
Already kickin arses.

af3V0S4.jpg
 
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