The Coffee Ride #38 with Reece Homfray
CHRIS Froome’s Australian wingman Richie Porte says his body and mind are exactly where he wants them as he prepares to help Team Sky take aim at a third straight Tour de France.
AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU
BUMPER EDITION INCLUDES:
— PORTE’S REVEALING INTERVIEW
— GREENEDGE MORE ADVANCED THAN SKY: ANDERSON
— JACK HAIG JOINS ACADEMY IN EUROPE
— WILLOUGHBY OUT TO REGAIN BMX TITLE
— MATTHEWS’ EXCLUSIVE TDF COLUMN
PORTE FRESH AND FIRING FOR SKY’S TOUR DEFENCE
CHRIS Froome’s Australian wingman Richie Porte says his body and mind are exactly where he wants them as he prepares to help Team Sky take aim at a third straight Tour de France.
The Tasmanian’s season has been interrupted with illness which forced him to miss the Giro d’Italia in May, but he says he now feels fresher because of it.
And just three days before the 101st edition of the Tour begins in the UK, Porte has warned of an explosive first week which will be just as important for GC contenders as it will for the sprinters.
He has also responded to media reports suggesting cracks are starting to show in Team Sky’s train after Froome failed to defend his Criterium du Dauphine title and finished 12th in the Tour’s warm-up event last month.
“I’m professional enough to realise there’s not much point reading what’s written, we had a super-strong team in the Dauphine and I heard people were questioning the team,” he told News Limited.
“Chris showed he was in brilliant form before he had the crash and if we were riding on the front all day every day like we were, and still getting guys to the finish, that shows how strong the team is.
“It’s one of those ones where people write what they want to write, but then other riders in the peloton were coming up the next day saying ‘you guys were super-impressive yesterday’ and things like that.
“This year we will have a stronger team than what we had last year. But there’s no doubting we are seeing a better Alberto (Contador) than what he was last year then you throw into the mix like (Vincenzo) Nibali and guys like this, it’s not going to be an easy race.”
Porte was on fire in January, finishing third in the road race at nationals and winning the Willunga stage at the Tour Down Under. But since then he admits it “hasn’t been the year that I’d hoped for”.
“I started well at Tour Down Under and was in great shape but then I got sick around Tirreno and haven’t really fully recovered until around now,” he said.
“I was quite good at the Dauphine and I’m happy with how things are with training, I’m right where I need to be going into the Tour.
“The Tour of Romandie was a real wake-up call, I thought I was going okay around then but to not finish the race ...
“But the team has been great, they’ve supported me and looked after me really well.
“I was always doing the training that I was supposed to be doing, that wasn’t the problem. It was just that my body hadn’t recovered.
“Now I haven’t (done) the amount of racing I did last year, I feel more fresh and the Tour is the biggest goal of the year and I’m going in much fresher than had I done the Giro and all that.”
Team Sky has done extensive course reconnassiance of the opening three stages in the UK and Porte also knows the potential dangers of Stage 5 which includes cobbled sectors of Paris-Roubaix.
“The first stages in Yorkshire are quite tricky and the Roubaix stage is something that most of the guys who ride the GC races have never really had to contend with, so it’s something new,” he said.
“We’ve already looked at those stages and probably done more recon than most of the other guys.
“We’ve looked at what the team deemed crucial stages, six mountain stages and then each of the ones in the UK we’ve looked at as well.
“Certainly we’ve done our homework and obviously you can lose time in the first week quite easily if you go to sleep but the last three Pyrenees stages, if you’re not good there then it’s all over.
“I’ve got a few days now with efforts but all the work has been done and it’s all about hitting the start line a little bit more fresh and ready to fight from day one because it’s going to be a battle straight away.
Porte will fly to the UK on Wednesday before the circus of the Tour — the crowds, media attention and stress of racing begins on Saturday.
He doesn’t yet know if he’ll be rooming with Froome during the race.
“You are in a bubble and it is a stressful bubble, but nowadays there are added (distractions) of social media and things like that which you try to cut back on,” he said.
“I’m not sure if I’m rooming with Chris again, he might room by himself because if he takes the jersey he’s not really there (hotel) until late.”
After some stages, Porte will try to relax by watching movies but he says travel time, team meetings, massage and dinner means there usually isn’t much spare time.
“It’s really all about recovery. We might watch movies of a night but by the time you get back to the hotel — it takes quite a while trying to get the bus through the traffic — and massage, time to eat dinner and not long after it’s time for bed.
“(Froome) is very chilled out, very relaxed, he’s won the Tour already so he knows what to do.
“He’s a class act in that respect and very, very relaxed.”
This will be Porte’s fourth appearance in the Tour de France after he debuted with Saxo Bank in 2011.
His parents have made the trip over from Tasmania in the past and this year his younger brother and brother’s wife will be watching from the roadside.
WILLOUGHBY COMES ‘FULL CIRCLE’ SINCE 2012 TRIUMPH
IT’S two years since Sam Willoughby fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming BMX world champion which he followed with a silver medal at the London Olympics.
But how quickly the biggest moments of Willoughby’s career become memories spurring him on to Rotterdam for this year’s world titles and the 2016 Games in Rio.
“You really don’t realise how special a world title is until you lose it like I didn’t last year,” Willoughby told News Limited last week.
“So I am 100 per cent motivated to putting myself in the best position physically and mentally to win that rainbow jersey back.
“Since 2012 I feel I have almost come full circle with regards to my physical (condition), knowledge of the sport and mental game.
“Last year I set out to win as much as I could in US and retain that title and didn’t really focus on the world championships and world cups, and I was successful in winning 20 out of 24 races along with the title.
“(But) 2014 I am determined to test myself and my new preparations with my new coach whom I started working with after London.
“I see this world championships as a test before the next Olympics and have set aside eight weeks to prepare and focus on this one event — the same as what the Olympic Games requires.”
After winning the second world cup of the season in Holland this year, Willoughby skipped the third round along with two races in the US.
“I felt I needed some time to put in some work and actually come into this world championships prepared,” he said.
“I got off to a good start to the season in the US with four wins but it’s been a busy back-to-back schedule.”
The Adelaide 22-year-old will have one more race in Pennsylvania before freshening up for the world championships which run from July 22-27.
GREENEDGE WALKING SAME PATH AS SKY: ANDERSON
AUSTRALIAN cycling legend Phil Anderson believes Orica-GreenEDGE is following the same path as British outfit Sky and could possibly be more advanced at the same age of their existence.
He said finding a GC rider for a Grand Tour was the logical next step for GreenEDGE which is set to contest its third Tour de France without a yellow jersey contender but instead targeting stage wins.
By contrast, Sky had won the entire Tour de France in just its third year of operation in 2012 when Bradley Wiggins saluted.
But Anderson said watching GreenEDGE win stages of all three Grand Tours and wearing the Tour’s yellow jersey in 2013 and Giro’s pink in 2014 was very impressive.
“The continuation of GreenEDGE and to watch it go from strength to strength is exciting,” he said.
“All we need is to see a general classification rider come out of the team and then it would be complete.
“They’ve always looked at the Sky team as an inspiration and model for their team, I remember Gerry (Ryan) telling me that years ago and that was before Sky was having the success that we’ve seen the last two or three years with Froome and Wiggins.
“It took Sky a few years to develop and I think so far Orica-GreenEDGE is on track and possibly doing better than Sky did in their early days.
“Now they’re looking to step up to the general classification.”
Anderson — the first Australian and non-European to wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey — is heading to this year’s race as an ambassador for Oakley which is celebrating 30 years’ in sports eyeware.
Since he retired, he’s only missed one Tour in 1996 when he was in Atlanta commentating on the Olympics.
Anderson was 23 when he rode the Tour for the first time in 1981 but says young riders today are better prepared for the three-week epic.
“I think the riders today are a lot better prepared for the endurement of a Tour,” he said.
“It’s in the press and with the internet they can read all about it or watch it. When I was a kid going over there I had no idea, I was very green and wasn’t prepared at all.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, I just didn’t know what was around the corner.”
HAIG JOINS WTA IN EUROPE
HAVING abandoned plans to contest mountain biking at the Commonwealth Games, Jack Haig has swapped his Avanti Racing jersey for Cycling Australia’s WorldTour Academy colours in Europe for the rest of the season.
The 20-year-old started the season strongly at the Tour Down Under and Herald Sun Tour before kicking on with second at the Battle of the Border and winning the Tour of Toowoomba in the NRS.
He then took that form to the Tour of Korea where he was third on general classification and the second best young rider in the field.
“Korea was a new experience for me being my first Asian race, but I really enjoyed it,” Haig said.
“There was a high quality field there that made for great racing and to came away with third in GC was a good result.”
Haig is currently training at altitude in Livigno in Italy but is expected to return to racing at the Czech Cycling Tour on July 17. His schedule is still being finalised but it is expected to include the Tour de l’Avenir — known as a mini-Tour de France for young riders.
“At the start of the year I had plans to try and do Commonwealth Games for mountain biking as well as link in with the WTA,” he said.
“But after I had such a great start to the year I decided to focus on the road more.
“I decided to stay in Australia for the first half and try and help the guys out at Avanti Racing in the NRS as well as in some Asian racing.
“After that the opportunity came up for me to spend the rest of the year in Europe racing with the under-23 guys and with the weather turning bad in Victoria I couldn’t think of a better time to come and join the European summer.”
Haig said at this stage the plan was to follow a similar pathway in 2015.
“I am hoping I will be riding for Andrew at Avanti Racing for the start of the season, then hopefully be able to come over to Europe with the under-23 guys and do a full season of European racing.”
MICHAEL MATTHEWS COLUMN
MICHAEL Matthews is this week taking News Limited readers inside the Orica-GreenEDGE camp in the lead up to his Tour de France debut.
If you missed his first column published on Monday, you can read it HERE.
Otherwise, stay tuned for his second column this Saturday as the team arrives in Leeds and prepares for the start of the 101st edition of the world’s biggest bike race.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“It’s no secret that we’re targeting stage two. Everyone is already talking up their chance if they have riders who can ride well in the Ardennes and obviously Simon is one of those guys. From stage eight onwards we have a number of other cards to play.”
- Orica-GreenEDGE director Matt White tells Cyclingnews.com about his team’s plans for the Tour de France.
“I feel fortunate that it’s all fallen into place for this chance but at the same time I’ve really worked my arse off for it. That’s not lost on me either — I don’t think it’s just been tossed in my lap but definitely I think back to the times where I could have thrown the towel in.”
- Australian cyclist Zak Dempster who rides for NetApp-Endura on making his Tour de France debut at the age of 27 this week.
“I think it’s wiser, however, to not take any risks and focus on absolute, 100 per cent recovery, and continue to train in function of the Tour de France.”
- Mark Cavendish explains his decision to skip the British national championship road race and recover from bronchitis before the Tour.
“I used to be a downhill mountain biker. I did better in the races with lots of pedalling, and then I realised maybe that cross-country was my thing. I did well at cross country straight up, and then did two seasons of the (UCI Mountain Bike) World Cup. And then basically realised that it was too hard.”
- Australian Nathan Haas tells Velonews.com of how he came to love road cycling.
TWEET, TWEET
For Sale. Been raced, not much. Battery fully charged (I think). Good condition. Reasonable offers please. pic.twitter.com/aFuGc5P5aB
— David Millar (@millarmind) June 30, 2014— Scottish cyclist David Millar unleashed a swag of Tweets on Monday voicing his displeasure at being left out of Garmin-Sharp’s team for the Tour de France. This one, which is another dig at his team management and pointing to the fact that his career could be over, got 1200 retweets in no time.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #38 with Reece Homfray
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