But the 36-year-old, who grew up just outside Launceston and has spent the bulk of his career based in Monaco, says he can increasingly feel that Tasmania is calling him to come home.

Porte will hang up his racing gear at the end of 2022, after his final year of riding with British team Ineos Grenadiers.

He’s keen to make his final year of racing a good one – he’s competing in South Australia’s Tour Down Under from now until next Saturday and is also keen to have a crack at the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) later this year.

But as much as he’s loved the ups and downs of his career, Porte says that after the season ends, he plans to step away from all things related to professional cycling and instead settle down, with his wife Gemma and their two young children, for a quiet life in Tasmania.

“It’s the one place where I have my bearings and I know what’s what,’’ Porte confesses of his home state.

“At the end of year I will have been in Monaco for 13 years. My wife’s English, so we’ll pack up and go to Manchester for Christmas and make plans from there. We want to try and get in a skiing holiday in Europe while we’re there and maybe see some bits and pieces of Europe that we haven’t seen.

“But the plan for us is to move back to Tassie full-time. I think you take for granted your upbringing in Tassie and what a great place it is. For me it’s home and my wife is happy enough to make a go of it as well. Which is quite a huge sacrifice on her behalf. To be honest I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else than Tassie.”

Porte’s career has been filled with sacrifices – from leaving his hometown and moving to Italy to compete at the age of 21, to spending long stints away from his family and friends, and even missing the birth of his daughter Eloise, who is now 16 months old, as his wife gave birth in Monaco while he was competing in the 2020 Tour de France in the Pyrenees mountains.

Porte arrived back in Launceston in mid-November and since completing two weeks of home quarantine has been out and about enjoying the trivial happenings of everyday life that most of us take for granted, like visiting the new house that his younger brother recently moved in to, or taking his kids to the local playground.

“I spend 10-11 months of the year away from [my extended family],” Porte says.

“My parents aren’t getting any younger.

“And it’s hard when you have kids and you’re in Monaco and your parents are a
28-hour flight away.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, to be away from your family, and I do miss having that family support.”

Porte isn’t entirely sure when and where he’ll compete this year, but he would like to tackle the Tour of Italy as he rides towards retirement.

“I don’t know what races I’ll be doing … but I think it’s fair to say I won’t do the Tour de France,” Porte says.

“Which is kind of fine for me. I’ll be 37 this year [on January 30] and it’s only getting more and more crazy, with bigger crashes and the young guys are just so good.”

Porte achieved his long-held dream when he finished third in the 2020 Tour de France – becoming only the second Australian to reach the podium.

So he feels he doesn’t have much left to prove.

“For me, to finally hit that podium – it was a huge personal goal to achieve,” Porte admits.

He says he considered riding for a couple more years, but ultimately his family has to come first. His three-year-old son Luca is particularly fond of Tasmanian life and is adamant he doesn’t want to return to Monaco.

“Once you have kids it is the best perspective giver on life, it makes you realise that cycling isn’t the be-all and end-all, my wife and my two kids are number one,” Porte says.

“When your three-year-old son says: ‘I don’t want to go back home’, that’s when you kind of realise that you probably could do another two years of it – of riding – but it’s kind of unfair,

I guess your priorities do shift when you have two kids.

“They love it here, having their grandparents close. And sort of just having everything so close … like swimming pools and parks – the parks around here are absolutely fantastic – and good schools, it’s a win/win situation.’’

Porte has often thought how nice it would be for his kids to go to school in Monaco, where they would pick up the local languages – children are taught English, French, Monegasque and sometimes Italian. But there are also plenty of downsides to living in a tiny country full of people.

Covering just over 2sq km (208ha), Monaco is the second smallest sovereign state in the world, after Vatican City. It’s also the most densely populated country in the world, with around 38,000 residents. To put that into perspective – the whole of Monaco is smaller than New York’s Central Park.

“There’s just so much more to life than living in such a built-up place,” Porte says.

“For me, personally, I went to Hagley Farm Primary School, it’s a great little school, and that’s the life I want for my kids.

“Just even things like … I grew up with a shack on the East Coast. Things like that, that you took for granted at the time. Tassie, the way of life here – you can jump in the car, and in 15 minutes you can be out in middle of Woop Woop. We’ve got such beautiful nature here.”

Porte has a special affinity with the state’s roads, too.

He says it is a “no-brainer” to come back to Tassie and train, particularly as he’s avoiding the European winter and the next wave of Covid which has kicked off there.

“For training it’s absolutely brilliant,” says Porte, who rides the famous 135km Scottsdale loop most mornings and clocks up about 1000km a week on the bike.

“When I’m fit I can bowl it over in about four hours.

“The thing about Tassie that I love, is that you don’t have to stop either, you can get out into the country and just ride … in Europe there are traffic lights everywhere.”

He’s been riding the Scottsdale loop since his early days of cycling and says there’s something comforting about returning to ride roads he knows so well.

“That’s the loop I normally would do when I’m here,” he says.

“It’s nice and quiet and out of people’s way. You don’t see too many cars and the cars you do see, no one’s in a real rush. I love the roads around the north-east of Tassie. These are roads I grew up riding, so I absolutely love that side of things.

“When you’re riding around as a kid with that dream of becoming a professional cyclist and now at the twilight of my career it’s just nice to revisit some of those memories that you have.’’

Porte grew up in the town of Hadspen, 10km outside Launceston (he was actually presented with the Key to the City by Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten early last year in recognition of his sporting achievements and his Tasmanian roots).

As one of four boys, Porte was encouraged by his parents Ian and Penny to try his hand at numerous sports, before deciding to focus on cycling, and he has fond memories of staying up late to watch the Tour de France on TV as a child.

“I was pretty much a bench warmer in football, then I was a football boundary umpire,’’ Porte recalls of his sporting pursuits, which also included working as a pool lifeguard.

“I always swam as a kid, then I sort of went off into triathlon but I really just enjoyed cycling and went from there.’’

Porte moved away from multi-sport pursuits in favour of cycling events.

He was seen in a local race by Tasmanian cycling identity Andrew Christie-Johnson, who signed him to the team he co-founded. After winning 18 races in two years, a 21-year-old Porte moved to Italy and promptly won his first race at the first attempt which he says was “a bit of an eye opener”.

“I realised I could make a go of it,’’ he says of professional cycling.

In 2013 he became the first Australian to ever win the famed eight-day Paris-Nice cycling event, which has been running annually since 1933, and then won it again in 2015.

And Porte achieved his long-held dream when he finished third at the 2020 Tour de France – becoming only the second Australian to reach the podium (the other is Cadel Evans who won the event in 2011 and finished second twice).

There were many times he wondered whether he’d missed his chance to secure that spot on the podium – and at age 35 he felt time was against him.

But despite any doubts, Porte achieved his long-held goal in the event which runs across 21 stages, over 23 days, covering 3500km and is considered one of toughest sporting events in the world.

And he was welcomed to the podium by an announcer who told the world that he was from Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

Porte wears a pendant in the shape of Tasmania when he rides – which his mother gave him when he turned professional back in 2009 – in a nod to his Tasmanian roots.

“This is my dream to be on the podium,’’ Porte said at the time of his Tour de France success.

“I’m just over the moon; it feels like a victory to me to be third. Now I can retire happy, this means everything to me.”

For now, Porte says he’s focused on making his final year of cycling the best it can possibly be.

“I guess the one big thing I’d like to do is enjoy my last year,’’ Porte says.

“Because it has been a privilege to ride a bike for a living. It will have been 16 years of living over in Europe, and it’s not always the most enjoyable – with the language barrier and all that sort of stuff, it can be hard to fit with the whole French lifestyle. But I’ve had some absolutely fantastic moments too.’’

Porte’s sights are currently set on winning South Australia’s Tour Down Under, which is on now and runs until January 29. Porte has won the key climbing stage, Willunga Hill, seven times and has won the event outright twice.

He’d also love to win a final race in Italy – taking him full circle, back to where his international racing career began.

“Being from Australia, it’s a big motivation to go there and do well,’’ he says of the Tour Down Under.

“The crowds that they get there for that cycling race are just incredible … it’s more like being on a football ground to be honest, riding that Willunga Hill, it’s something I’ve enjoyed over the years.’’

That buzz from a cheering crowd is definitely something Porte will miss as he prepares to retire from the sport he loves, but he says he’s also excited for the future.

“I mean it definitely has its moments, you have a bad crash and injuries – which I’ve had my fair share of,’’ Porte says.

“Then when my son says ‘I don’t want daddy to go back to work’ as I’m heading out, of course that plays on your mind a little bit.

“But it is just a privilege to be able to do something you enjoy as a job.’’

So what will someone, who has been so focused on his career and his fitness for so long, do when he’s no longer racing?

“That’s one of the things that I have really been thinking about for the last few months,’’ Porte confesses.

“But I think I’m in a position now where I can kind of relax for a bit and kind of enjoy my first year without having to ride a bike. I don’t think I’ll stay involved within cycling, it’s just been my life for so long and wouldn’t mind stepping away from it.’’

He says he wouldn’t mind having a crack at mountain biking, on some of Tassie’s famous trails, just for fun.

He’s also looking forward to just being a normal dad and husband, without the need for extensive training and travel.

“I more look forward to normal things – having a dog and taking the kids to school,’’ Porte says.

“They’re the things that I really look forward to, just a bit of normality.’’

He laughs as he thinks back to the days before children when being a professional athlete was much simpler.

He recounts his morning routine now, when he’s busily trying to make a coffee and eat breakfast so he can head out for a training ride, while he and his wife juggle the needs of two small children. He tries to get out on his training ride as early as he can, so he can be back in time to spend afternoons with his family.

“When you’re a professional athlete you look after number one,’’ Porte explains.

“I used to get home and put my feet up. Now I’m chasing kids around the house, stuff like that. I love it. But it’s definitely different.’’•