Ambitious Richie Porte craves a win in retirement season

Although coming in late to the pro peloton, Richie Porte has been one of the most successful stage-racers of the last decade. Now, in his final season in the peloton, he has one clear goal in mind.

“My goal is to try at least win a bike race this year, somewhere,” he states, even though this year he will be in more of a domestique role in INEOS Grenadiers, the ambition is still very much alive.

“I go back and race Tirreno-Adriatico which is a race I’ve hardly ridden, I’ve raced it once and I’d love to win something like that in my last year.” Porte is set to tackle a more alternative calendar to that that he's been familiar with in the last few years. Having started it in the non-UCI Santos Festival of Cycling, he is scheduled to start his European calendar in the Italian stage-race.

He will ride the Giro d'Italia this year. His role is still unclear, as with Egan Bernal's absence due to a horrific crash it is expected that someone planned to ride the Giro will fill in for him at the Tour de France. Under normal circumstances Richard Carapaz would be going in to lead the squad in Italy, that is not a certainty at the moment though, but Tao Geoghegan Hart is surely going to be a card to play as is possibly new cyclocross World Champion Tom Pidcock, and the team may have different plans for Porte.

He is also rumoured to be at the start of Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné, but one race that does seem to be oulined well in his calendar is more towards the end of the season: “At the moment my last bike race will be the Tour of Britain.”