The Coffee Ride #8 with Reece Homfray

RICHIE Porte says he will hold nothing back in tonight’s gruelling 57.9km despite Sunday’s world championships.

Reece Homfray

7 min read

September 25, 2013 - 12:30AM

Australia's Richie Porte crosses the Tour de France Stage 8 finish line second.

AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU

RICHIE PORTE GOES ALL-IN

RICHIE Porte says he will hold nothing back in tonight’s gruelling 57.9km individual time trial despite also carrying Australia’s hopes in the 272km road race at the world championships on Sunday.

Porte’s UCI road world titles campaign in Italy started with the team time trial for Sky Procycling on Sunday and will continue by donning the green and gold jersey twice this week.

Porte and Rohan Dennis are Australia’s two starters in tonight’s individual time trial where they will have to beat the likes of Swiss Fabian Cancellara and German Tony Martin for a spot on the podium.

They will also ride the road race where Porte and Cadel Evans will be Australia’s two protected leaders around the tough circuit in Tuscany.

The 28-year-old Tasmanian is coming off a huge season which included winning Paris-Nice and helping Chris Froome win the Tour de France.

But after a month of training and racing at altitude, he isn’t afraid of exhaustion and promises to go all-in for tonight’s ITT.

“At the end of the day for us as professionals, that’s just how it is,” Porte told News Limited.

“You don’t really worry about how you recover after a 50km time trial because we do it in the Tour (de France) all the time.

“It’s going to be like any normal time trial, full gas, and see how Sunday is, it’s 270km and a hard circuit so either you’re going to have the legs or you’re not and you can’t use the time trial as an excuse.

“I’ve had a good block at altitude, three weeks in Colorado and training at around 2600m, sometimes up to 4200m so that all helps.

“Then you come down from altitude suddenly you can breathe properly again, then you realise the form is not too bad, it’s just (having) to recover from that.”

Porte — who was fourth in the ITT at the 2010 world championships — took two weeks off after the Tour de France and escaped injury in a crash in Canada last week.

“I enjoyed my time after the Tour so that’s quite important, I had a couple of weeks of basically no training,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to the worlds then a few races afterwards also — I’ll do (Giro di) Lombardia and (Tour of) Beijing and Japan Cup so it’s all go.”

He said the world titles were perfect motivation to keep riding right through to October, especially when the road racecourse suits climbers.

“It doesn’t always happen that there’s a worlds which is a good course for you,” he said.

“It’s a long season, I started racing nationals in January and I’m still going but it’s also been a fantastic season so I’d like to finish it off with a nice result somewhere — if not worlds then some of the other races.”

Porte expects the general classification contenders from this month’s Vuelta a Espana to bring good form to the world championships but says the third Grand Tour of the season might have also taken its toll on some of them.

“Some of the guys come out of the Vuelta absolutely on their hands and knees.

“It’s a possibility because it was a hard race — you saw Nibali lose it in the last week and he’s one of the favourites here (worlds) so I hope there’s a few more the same as him.”

In a boost for Tour Down Under organisers, Porte plans to return to Australia for a month at the end of the season then head to Adelaide in January for the season-opening WorldTour race.

“I’ll come back to Australia for a month which is something to really look forward to,” he said.

“Then I think I’ll do (Tour) Down Under which for me that doesn’t happen often.”

HOW I ROLL ... MARO ENGEL

I’M quite excited about this new section of the column which will run whenever we get material on athletes/celebrities/dignitaries/personalities who love to ride their bike.

Kicking things off this week is V8 Supercar driver Maro Engel who drives an E63 Mercedes for Erebus Motorsport.

Of German descent, 28-year-old Engel grew up in Monaco and considers MTN-Qhubeka’s 2014 signing Linus Gerdemann and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 driver, Nico Rosberg as friends and cycling training partners.

V8 Supercar driver Maro Engel on his bike. Picture: Supplied

Now based on the Gold Coast, when he isn’t playing golf he can be found riding along the coastline of Australia’s holiday playground.

I love to ride because ... Endurance training plays a big role in my training regime and I really enjoy riding through different sceneries while chatting with friends about all sorts of things — predominantly motorsport and women actually.

I’m currently riding ... A Pistidda Time Machine TT bike and a Cannondale SuperSix Evo road bike. Both are awesome.

Each week I’d clock up ... 250km

My favourite place to ride is ... I absolutely love the coast and mountains in the south of France around Monaco as the scenery is second to none with the sea, as well as the Alps just there.

The best coffee stop is ... Robbie McEwen’s Piccolo in Miami. Great coffee and also very good food.

I’m a big fan of ... As a child I grew up cheering on Jan Ullrich, but now I’d have to say Linus Gerdemann as he is a great mate of mine and simply a great honest upright guy.

Engel on the move. Picture: Supplied

ADELAIDE’S ELITE SERIES IS BACK

SOUTH Australia’s popular elite cycling series is back in a new, condensed format but with some of the same exciting stages and plenty of big names in the field.

Importantly, the 110km ‘Hell of the North’ along the Copper Coast on the Yorke Peninsula featuring off-road dirt sections returns, as does the Norton Summit time trial in which Damien Howson smashed the record two years ago. The team time trial is also back on the calendar.

The 10-round series including criteriums at Bowden and Victoria Park will run from October 6 to December 15. In previous years the season has continued into the new year but will now be run and won by Christmas.

Organised by Cycling SA, the series again has the backing of Renewal SA which has signed a two-year extension as major sponsor.

As part of the deal, a new Bowden branded team from the South Australian Sports Institute will also be on the start line.

Mark Chadwick competes in Cycling SA's Hell of the North last season. Picture: Kevin Anderson, Chameleon Photography.

For the first time this year, all competing teams will also participate in Amy’s Ride SA along the Southern Expressway on November 3 to promote cycling safety and awareness.

Rider movement among teams has continued in the off-season and national track sprinters — turned endurance riders — Scott Sunderland and James Glasspool have registered.

Sunderland will race for Euride Racing SA Elite alongside previous series winner George Tansley and Garmin-Sharp pro Rohan Dennis.

Alex Edmondson, Glenn O’Shea and Luke Davison will ride for Bike Station/Watermark, Scott McPhee will line up for McNeill Logistics, Harry Carpenter headlines Bowden/SASI and Damien Howson returns for Team Lightsview.

I’ll have a full preview of the series next month.

COOL CUSTOM PAINTED TT MACHINE

YOU don’t have to be Jens Voigt to get your own custom painted bike.

Fifty-five-year-old Adelaide triathlete Kevin Carr isn’t afraid to show his true colours after giving his Felt B12 time trial bike a makeover for the Busselton Ironman in December.

The bike is four years old but after being pulled apart, stripped, re-painted and totally re-built it looks and feels as good as new.

Carr opted for the blue of his local triathlon club Lakers to replace the bike’s old black colour, and combined with the Lakers and ironman logo, finished it off with blue brake cables.

The paint job was done by southern suburbs airbrush business, Adair, and Carr said the cost of the job would remain private but he was thrilled with the result.

“I did triathlon a long time ago then gave it up for about 10 years,” the Telstra account executive said.

Kevin Carr had this Felt bike custom painted with Lakers Triathlon Club colours. Picture: Supplied.

“When I got back into it I thought I’m not going to be too quick so I’ll do the longer distance races.

“I’ve done three ironmans now and rather than get a new bike, I thought about getting the paint re-done.

“It sounds corny but meeting the people (at the Lakers) is inspiring and the ironman community is very supportive.

“And that came out even stronger when I had a couple of health issues because there are a lot of medical people at the club who were very supportive.”

Carr admitted he was “a little” nervous about handing over his bike to be painted but is now very happy with the finished product which is iridescent — meaning it also sparkles in the sun.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Personally, I want a bottle of hot tea for refuelling. In any case, after an hour of racing, your rain jacket is soaked through and despite the protection that we put on the shoes, you are ice cold throughout your body. We should have a little more fat for protection and would love to have the sun come out again.”

- IAM Cycling’s Marcel Wyss on the difficult conditions at the Tour of Britain last week.

“I was exited to see Garmin-Sharp racing aggressively and full of passion in the Tour de France this year and I am happy to join this group and be supportive on the highest level.”

- Sebastian Langeveld reveals a Tour de France start was behind his move from Orica-GreenEDGE to Garmin-Sharp next season.

“This is where I grew up you know. When you’ve (got) a life like mine where you move everywhere, you haven’t got a home really. But this feels like home to me. After all this time to come back here and have Cav winning here, it’s just nuts really, it’s pretty special for me really.”

- Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford after Stage 4 of the Tour of Britain from Stoke-on-Trent to Llanberis this week.

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