Richie Porte - what do we know about him?

[Bakhjulet]

Please feel free to answer htf Poels/Moreno/Voigt and others were able to bridge on Peyresourde and tha Portie not. From the pain on Mente? I agree it is possible he imploded a bit on Mente, first real serious col of the day, but so did a lot of guys who returned ON Peyresourde. On the bottom of Val Louron he was at two minutes and in a flash he was on 1 minute 15/16/17 with 5K to go on that climb.

Too bad he couldnt come back, would have been good TV.

So what you're saying is that Porte could have bridged but didn't. So then the obvious question must be: what was his reson not to bridge? Brailsford told him not to because pressure from ASO? Is that a more reasonable explanation than that he actually didn't really recover that well from the effort on Mente and couldn't go as well as Moreno et al on Peyresourde? I don't think so.

 

[roundabout]

Agreed. I don't think he was under any stress at all. SBS broadcast showed Porte quite a bit. When he was losing time to the tune of a minute every now and then from when he was 2 mins down the camera would pan back to him.

We've all seen guys lose that kind of time and they've always been in pain. Porte wasn't even sweating. No grimace. No pain. He really needs to learn how to sell the act. He should borrow Durianriders advice. Scrunch up his face, bob his head up and down, weave across the road, throw his bike around. Basically just imitate Hesjedal. Maybe we should all ask JV what Ryder thought of Porte's outing yesterday? Feigning or legit? There is a thread for it after all.

Hesjedal looks awful whether off the front or off the back.

 

[Galic Ho]

Ryder looked solid in LBL. Everything after is a different story.

You can tell when he is having a bad day. Same with the old Porte. He looked bad when he was bad. Didn't look bad yesterday.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I must say I am warming to the idea of ASO running a handicap. That would be pretty cool. Sorry Sky but you were too good yesterday so today Stannard has to ride a unicycle. Hey maybe they already handicapped Canondale in the TTT. Shame they didn't start this 30 years ago

 

[faraday]

Please feel free to answer htf Poels/Moreno/Voigt and others were able to bridge on Peyresourde and tha Portie not. From the pain on Mente? I agree it is possible he imploded a bit on Mente, first real serious col of the day, but so did a lot of guys who returned ON Peyresourde. On the bottom of Val Louron he was at two minutes and in a flash he was on 1 minute 15/16/17 with 5K to go on that climb.

Too bad he couldnt come back, would have been good TV.

If he'd followed his ridiculous performance the previous day with another great performance, it would have been taken as evidence of his cheating. He followed it up with a poor performance, and this is also taken as evidence of him doping.

There's some interesting evidence against Porte that people on here have posted in the past, but Sunday's ride being used as one of the pieces of evidence just involves too many assumptions and twists in logic, and seems too much like confirmation bias.

 

[MacRoadie]

If he'd followed his ridiculous performance the previous day with another great performance, it would have been taken as evidence of his cheating. He followed it up with a poor performance, and this is also taken as evidence of him doping.

There's some interesting evidence against Porte that people on here have posted in the past, but Sunday's ride being used as one of the pieces of evidence just involves too many assumptions and twists in logic, and seems too much like confirmation bias.

I too was questioning the Sky performances on Saturday, but Sunday's ride for Porte was in no way an act.

One. he finished second on the stage Saturday and was tested, so nothing he did on Sunday would affect that.

Two, there is no way in hell that Sky leaves Froome all by himself in a group that was stocked with Saxo and Movistar riders, as well as Cuddles. That stage had the very real possibility of ending Sky's Tour chances with anything from Froome bonking, to a mechanical, a crash, a flat or just too many attacks on the jersey.

 

[goggalor]

I highly doubt Porte was acting. They could have easily lost the Tour, leaving Froome isolated like that for 130 km. If he had punctured or crashed it could have all been over. If they want to act weaker than they are (and I do actually believe they're concerned about Froome's alien wattages), they'd have Porte ride a weak TT, or have Froome cling onto Contador up Alpe d'Huez, and maybe lose a few seconds. They wouldn't risk losing the entire race.

 

[Rollthedice]

Me too. He was pulling alone and got under 2 min. from the movi machine but it was really impossible to catch up by himself. On the other hand how on earth Kyrienka managed to arrive too late?

 

[acoggan]

If he'd followed his ridiculous performance the previous day with another great performance, it would have been taken as evidence of his cheating. He followed it up with a poor performance, and this is also taken as evidence of him doping.

Welcome to The Clinic.

 

[zlev11]

Porte was in the group of Chavanel/Cunego/Lutsenko/Le Mevel at the bottom of the Peyresourde and those 4 managed to get back up to the yellow group, so Movistars pace couldn't have been that high.

it's hard to say if it was an act or if he actually cracked, but the pace was definitely not that hard, definitely not even close to Sky's pace in the mountains last year when Rogers and Porte were dropping all but 4 other guys. yesterday the group actually grew on the climb.

it's just kind of hard to believe when you see a guy have a really horrible day after he's gone an entire season without having one.

 

[IndianCyclist]

I think most likely no/little sleep due to partying/excited condition & over confidence probably led to exhaustion and low recovery. As the entire team was affected, this looks to me the most probable cause.

 

[taiwan]

"Partying" ?

 

[MacRoadie]

"Partying"?

They must really be going full "Postal"...

 

[MacRoadie]

I think most likely no/little sleep due to partying/excited condition & over confidence probably led to exhaustion and low recovery. As the entire team was affected, this looks to me the most probable cause.

Word has it that Kiryienka and Siutsou snuck a kegger of Biver Svetloe Neosvetlennoe into the team hotel after Brailsford went to sleep.

 

[zigmeister]

I too was questioning the Sky performances on Saturday, but Sunday's ride for Porte was in no way an act.

One. he finished second on the stage Saturday and was tested, so nothing he did on Sunday would affect that.

Two, there is no way in hell that Sky leaves Froome all by himself in a group that was stocked with Saxo and Movistar riders, as well as Cuddles. That stage had the very real possibility of ending Sky's Tour chances with anything from Froome bonking, to a mechanical, a crash, a flat or just too many attacks on the jersey.

I highly doubt Porte was acting. They could have easily lost the Tour, leaving Froome isolated like that for 130 km. If he had punctured or crashed it could have all been over. If they want to act weaker than they are (and I do actually believe they're concerned about Froome's alien wattages), they'd have Porte ride a weak TT, or have Froome cling onto Contador up Alpe d'Huez, and maybe lose a few seconds. They wouldn't risk losing the entire race.

How could they have lost the tour when Froome just used Movistar as his liutenants and pacers? All he had to do was deal with what, maybe 3-4 attacks from the real threats...job done.

I assume at anytime, Froome could have just up and left all of them in his wake on that climb without his teammates anyway. Unless his ego got in the way, no need to do that and draw anymore suspicion to the Sky train.

It certainly would be a smart tactic to just play hooky and drop out of the main group to remove suspicion about doping. Well played.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

So what you're saying is that Porte could have bridged but didn't. So then the obvious question must be: what was his reson not to bridge? Brailsford told him not to because pressure from ASO? Is that a more reasonable explanation than that he actually didn't really recover that well from the effort on Mente and couldn't go as well as Moreno et al on Peyresourde? I don't think so.

I must say I dont have a clear answer. My initial thought yesterday was like yours but when I saw who bridged from the group on the Peyresourde it somehow didnt make sense.

It was a strange stage.

 

[thehog]

I must say I dont have a clear answer. My initial thought yesterday was like yours but when I saw who bridged from the group on the Peyresourde it somehow didnt make sense.

It was a strange stage.

This has been explained scientifically.

Never ever go full ***. Ends in tears.

Little bit *** is acceptable.

 

[MacRoadie]

How could they have lost the tour when Froome just used Movistar as his liutenants and pacers? All he had to do was deal with what, maybe 3-4 attacks from the real threats...job done.

I assume at anytime, Froome could have just up and left all of them in his wake on that climb without his teammates anyway. Unless his ego got in the way, no need to do that and draw anymore suspicion to the Sky train.

It certainly would be a smart tactic to just play hooky and drop out of the main group to remove suspicion about doping. Well played.

So, by your analysis, Froome really doesn't need a team at all. He'll just use other teams and ride away when he's tired of waiting for everyone.

Hopefully you just forgot the emoticons.

 

[Rip:30]

So, by your analysis, Froome really doesn't need a team at all. He'll just use other teams and ride away when he's tired of waiting for everyone.

Hopefully you just forgot the emoticons.

He doesn't need them on the big climbs when the speeds are slower, he's a few percent better than anyone else and they really needed to turn the central narrative from Sky dominance back to, look it's a race.

 

[Alpechraxler]

Ritchie:

Personally, with GC done and dusted now I'd like to have a good time trial, just for the morale. I've got a new position on my time trial bike so I really want to test that out.

 

[the sceptic]

Translation: im ready to go full *** again and finish 2nd behind the dawg

 

[Alpechraxler]

It will also mean that he will wear a long armed skin suit to have better grip on the gel pads.

 

[Parrot23]

partying/excited condition

RFLMAO, ha, ha!

 

[sniper]

Porte and Sky in good company.

 

[Alphabet]

Partying in the middle of a Grand Tour . Just imagine how Ferrari would react (not saying Ferrari works for Sky) to that.