Richie Porte Discussion Thread.

[thehog]

Richie showed some fight last night.

On the rest day Richie is show fight.

 

[Ripper]

Hey folks, reality is calling and Richie is not a GT phenom. Don't get me wrong, he can race well in 1 week and do OK over 2-3. But the 1-2 baddddd days will always get him.

Nice rotating stories by Sky
He was good before the stage and looking forward to it.

It was the heat.

Nope, he's actually been sick (sorry DB, you're out to lunch)

Hey, he's taking antibiotics (but is it viral or bacterial, his infection that is?)

Good grief.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Hey folks, reality is calling and Richie is not a GT phenom. Don't get me wrong, he can race well in 1 week and do OK over 2-3. But the 1-2 baddddd days will always get him.

Said pretty much the same since Porte was the new de-facto leader. He has too many off days to be a threat in GC. He's a superb domestique when in form but I doubt he will win a GT, like you said 1 week race wins are the best he can hope for.

 

[movingtarget]

Said pretty much the same since Porte was the new de-facto leader. He has too many off days to be a threat in GC. He's a superb domestique when in form but I doubt he will win a GT, like you said 1 week race wins are the best he can hope for.

Yes and no one knows whether he will be better than a superb domestique in a GT yet. His 7th in the Giro was courtesy of a crazy break. But if the guy has been sick, fair enough. If it was Contador who was sick it would be a different story of course like in 2013 when Contador was off his game. All we heard all year was "it's not the real Contador." Well duh we ain't seeing the real Richie Porte either at the moment. He does not normally lose 14 minutes in two mountain stages even when he is working hard for Froome. He might be better suited to the week long stage races like Paris Nice and there are many riders like that. Not many can do a strong ride over three weeks. It's a special talent.

 

[Ripper]

Yes and no one knows whether he will be better than a superb domestique in a GT yet. His 7th in the Giro was courtesy of a crazy break. But if the guy has been sick, fair enough. If it was Contador who was sick it would be a different story of course like in 2013 when Contador was off his game. All we heard all year was "it's not the real Contador." Well duh we ain't seeing the real Richie Porte either at the moment. He does not normally lose 14 minutes in two mountain stages even when he is working hard for Froome. He might be better suited to the week long stage races like Paris Nice and there are many riders like that. Not many can do a strong ride over three weeks. It's a special talent.

It is definitely a special talent.

Doping spec aside, the issue is Richie has never rocked the GT. "Yet" suggests more chances, but those appear to be running dry. He's either been sick or blown on a few occasions now (last year blew, Giro sick, a few days ago ... depends on which Sky story you believe more).

I think we have seen the real Richie, at least as far as we're allowed

 

[SeriousSam]

Yes and no one knows whether he will be better than a superb domestique in a GT yet. His 7th in the Giro was courtesy of a crazy break. But if the guy has been sick, fair enough. If it was Contador who was sick it would be a different story of course like in 2013 when Contador was off his game. All we heard all year was "it's not the real Contador." Well duh we ain't seeing the real Richie Porte either at the moment. He does not normally lose 14 minutes in two mountain stages even when he is working hard for Froome. He might be better suited to the week long stage races like Paris Nice and there are many riders like that. Not many can do a strong ride over three weeks. It's a special talent.

It's almost like Contador has done pretty well in grand tours so when he's poor, it's reasonable to suspect it's not the real Contador (up to a certain age).

The real Richie on the other hand hasn't yet emerged..unless it's the 29 year old guy who doesn't seem to have the recovery to win a Grand Tour.

 

[Ripper]

It's almost like Contador has done pretty well in grand tours so when he's poor, it's reasonable to suspect it's not the real Contador (up to a certain age).

The real Richie on the other hand hasn't yet emerged..unless it's the 29 year old guy who doesn't seem to have the recovery to win a Grand Tour.

And that is my point. I think we've seen the real Richie. How many shots does he need before it's real? Staying healthy is part of the talent process.

 

[greenedge]

What happened to all those attacks the funboys were predicting when I called Porte "boring wheelsucker" just the other day?

Once again, this is not some TDU joke race but a TDF!

Paris-Nice

 

[Cimber]

Yes and no one knows whether he will be better than a superb domestique in a GT yet. His 7th in the Giro was courtesy of a crazy break. But if the guy has been sick, fair enough. If it was Contador who was sick it would be a different story of course like in 2013 when Contador was off his game. All we heard all year was "it's not the real Contador." Well duh we ain't seeing the real Richie Porte either at the moment. He does not normally lose 14 minutes in two mountain stages even when he is working hard for Froome. He might be better suited to the week long stage races like Paris Nice and there are many riders like that. Not many can do a strong ride over three weeks. It's a special talent.

No you are right. He normally just needs 1 stage to lose 18 mins (stage 9 in 2013). The problem with Porte is that he is very inconsistent. He has at least one big ofday.

Regarding Contador you cant really compare the two. Contador has many times shown what he can do in GTs when in form. Thats what people refer to as the "real Contador". The "real Richie" is a guy who has at least one major off day a GT.

 

[Cimber]

Paris-Nice

Yes Porte is an exellent GT helper and a great 1 week stage race captain (as in PN). Not much of an GT captain though.

 

[MBotero]

I wouldn't dismiss Porte yet as future GT winner,after all he showed in 2013 that he can fight out with the best,without that off day,which still have some question marks attached ,he would have finished maybe even on the podium.Those off days were expected also for Nibali who in Giro 2013 don't have any,and till now not one in this TDF,so that's not a motive to rule out Porte.

 

[Cimber]

I wouldn't dismiss Porte yet as future GT winner,after all he showed in 2013 that he can fight out with the best,without that off day,which still have some question marks attached ,he would have finished maybe even on the podium.Those off days were expected also for Nibali who in Giro 2013 don't have any,and till now not one in this TDF,so that's not a motive to rule out Porte.

Well yeah, but the offdays are his main problem (i.e inconsistency). If he would perform on his top level each and every day he would be a GT candidate for sure. But he is way to inconsistant - much like a young rider - but he is 29. But if he can get rid of those offdays he could podium a GT, but so far it looks like 1 week stage raced might be his trade as a captain. But hey, thats not a bad thing per say. Know your limits and take advantage of your strenghts

 

[kurtinsc]

Well yeah, but the offdays are his main problem (i.e inconsistency). If he would perform on his top level each and every day he would be a GT candidate for sure. But he is way to inconsistant - much like a young rider - but he is 29. But if he can get rid of those offdays he could podium a GT, but so far it looks like 1 week stage raced might be his trade as a captain. But hey, thats not a bad thing per say. Know your limits and take advantage of your strenghts

Is it the fact he has an off day... or the fact that on his off-day, he loses 8-15 minutes rather then 3-5?

Porte had a bad day and lost 9 minutes to Nibali this year. Tejay had a bad day on stage 9 and lost 3:30 to Nibali.

I think the issue is that his bad days are REALLY bad.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Is it the fact he has an off day... or the fact that on his off-day, he loses 8-15 minutes rather then 3-5?

Porte had a bad day and lost 9 minutes to Nibali this year. Tejay had a bad day on stage 9 and lost 3:30 to Nibali.

I think the issue is that his bad days are REALLY bad.

You cannot really say he has a bad day this year, he only has had a lot of bad days since stage 13 so there is obviously something not right at the moment. It could be the chest infection Sky and Richie are saying he has, or something else. But he is just clearly not at his level at the moment and that has nothing to do with a bad day.

Last year he worked on early in the stage and later on just let go to rest and help Froome better. Not saying that was not a bad day for him, but it could have had to do something with riding insanely hard from the start of the stage (which not all riders like, especially not if they havent been on the rollers).

 

[movingtarget]

Is it the fact he has an off day... or the fact that on his off-day, he loses 8-15 minutes rather then 3-5?

Porte had a bad day and lost 9 minutes to Nibali this year. Tejay had a bad day on stage 9 and lost 3:30 to Nibali.

I think the issue is that his bad days are REALLY bad.

And the strange thing about those comparisons is, TJVG may never win a grand tour either. Even though he is young he will still have to beat the likes of Aru, Quintana and others when Contador and Froome have seen better days. But he has a great chance to podium this year where the two favourites have left the race and he has a TT coming up that should suit him. At this point unless he has a bad day in the Pyrenees I think he is all set to run second which would be much more than BMC expected before the race. I think his consistency puts him above Porte in a GT until Porte shows something more persuasive over three weeks.

 

[kurtinsc]

And the strange thing about those comparisons is, TJVG may never win a grand tour either. Even though he is young he will still have to beat the likes of Aru, Quintana and others when Contador and Froome have seen better days. But he has a great chance to podium this year where the two favourites have left the race and he has a TT coming up that should suit him. At this point unless he has a bad day in the Pyrenees I think he is all set to run second which would be much more than BMC expected before the race. I think his consistency puts him above Porte in a GT until Porte shows something more persuasive over three weeks.

Oh, no doubt.

TJVG is a solid rider, but he's not a climber on the level of Quintana. I could see TJVG win a GT only if the palmares were very favorable (little less on the climbs, litte more ITT) and the start list was favorable as well. Perhaps a Vuelta at some point.

Porte probably on his good days can surpass TJVG in the climbs and maybe equal him in the ITT. But everyone has bad days.... Porte's bad day cost him 9-10 minutes. TJVG's cost him 3-4 minutes. I don't know why that seems to happen to Porte a lot... but it seems like a pattern with him at this point.

 

[darwin553]

Porte probably on his good days can surpass TJVG in the climbs and maybe equal him in the ITT. But everyone has bad days.... Porte's bad day cost him 9-10 minutes. TJVG's cost him 3-4 minutes. I don't know why that seems to happen to Porte a lot... but it seems like a pattern with him at this point.

Come back to me when he doesn't have an interruption to his program leading up to the GTs and doesn't prepare for one as a domestique but as a leader.

 

[movingtarget]

Come back to me when he doesn't have an interruption to his program leading up to the GTs and doesn't prepare for one as a domestique but as a leader.

Well they are both out of it now. TJVG has had bronchitis and Porte has had a chest infection and a chequered start to the season which has not helped in his prep. Quite a few rider have had bronchitis this year. I really thought TJVG was looking good for the podium and Porte also. It's been an unpredictable race made even more unpredictable with the illness and crashes.

 

[Cimber]

You cannot really say he has a bad day this year, he only has had a lot of bad days since stage 13 so there is obviously something not right at the moment. It could be the chest infection Sky and Richie are saying he has, or something else. But he is just clearly not at his level at the moment and that has nothing to do with a bad day.

Last year he worked on early in the stage and later on just let go to rest and help Froome better. Not saying that was not a bad day for him, but it could have had to do something with riding insanely hard from the start of the stage (which not all riders like, especially not if they havent been on the rollers).

I am inclined to think that he had the usual really bad day. But when he was a helper for Froome there was a reason to bounce back. Now when he lost all of his own GC chances on the floor in one day that might have had a very disillusionating effect causing the further streak of abysmal performance.

Ofcourse there might be some health problems and regular fatigue too, but regardless of the reason he has hed a big offday which he never rebounded from. And it was so so predictable that it would happen. I called it the day Porte talked about his won GC chances as a tactical advantage over Contador, even before Froome crashed out.

 

[kurtinsc]

Well they are both out of it now. TJVG has had bronchitis and Porte has had a chest infection and a chequered start to the season which has not helped in his prep. Quite a few rider have had bronchitis this year. I really thought TJVG was looking good for the podium and Porte also. It's been an unpredictable race made even more unpredictable with the illness and crashes.

I never meant this to be a TJVG/Porte comparison. I was simply comparing how bad their bad days seemed to be respectively.

TJ had another bad day... and lost 4:30 or so. Granted that's not GOOD... but it's still not the 7-12 minute losses that Porte seems to get when he's off for a day.

Lose 3-5 minutes... you can still fight for a top 10 or maybe even a top 5. Lose 10... that's a lot harder to do.

I don't know if TJVG can climb well enough to do much better than 5th in a Tour... but I think he'll probably have a fair number of top 10 finishes because his bad days are less drastic. I don't know many guys who'd off days are often as huge as Porte.

 

[oldcrank]

Happy birthday Richie. I hope you have a
lovely day, my friend, and best of luck to
you and the lads on Sunday in Geelong.

 

[maxmartin]

Can Riche win his first ever GT/Giro this year? He is looking pretty solid at the moment.

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

Can Riche win his first ever GT/Giro this year? He is looking pretty solid at the moment.

No, his engine is usually only good for a week long races so he should focus on targeting stages and being domestic for Konig at Giro and Froome at the Tour.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Porte will be the captain in the Giro without a doubt.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Re:

Porte will be the captain in the Giro without a doubt.

Sky will start with two GC leaders.

König is the more talented GT specialist between the two of them, without a doubt.