Richie Porte – Moving to Greener Pastures?

Like The Clash classic “Should I stay or should I go” the question of, if the move is a wise one, will be interesting to see as much as it will be to observe how successful the move turns out to be for Richie Porte in the end.

Changing teams is common practice in professional cycling with various reasons: more personal opportunities, more money, better support and equipment. In Porte`s case it is more opportunities to lead a team in his own right. This, though, seems a little confusing, as riding for Sky has offered him the opportunity to be team leader in several races including a Grand Tour (Giro D`Italia 2015) where, despite a fantastic early season, he failed to deliver after a promising first week due to crashes. Whether he will get to be outright leader at BMC (if he goes there) is debatable with Tejay Van Garderen already ensconced within their system. Alternatively a move to OGE may leave him weak in the mountains regarding team support. That, in addition to whether OGE would put all their eggs in the Tour De France in Richie Porte`s basket over their tried and tested method of operation, which has produced (with the exception of this unlucky year) big results with stage wins and yellow jerseys.

New team, new ideas, new environment, new equipment. Is the grass really greener for Richie Porte? Only time will tell. But you can`t knock a great rider for trying and wanting to up his chances for Grand Tour success.

No love lost? Next year Porte will be a rival to Froome (although Sky will, without doubt, already have replacements for Porte in mind) and will know the in`s and out`s of Sky`s modem operandi, but, then again, so do Tinkoff-Saxo (Michael Rogers, Sean Yates) and Movistar (Alex Dowsett) as, I`m sure, their moves to these teams would have been accompanied with in-depth analysis of training methods and logistical methods employed by Sky. The marginal gains championed by Sir Dave Brailsford are now common place within these outfits, and, although the marginal gains arms race shows no signs of slowing down, the margins of difference in rider support seem to be narrowing (with the top teams anyway).

Porte will know better than anyone Froome`s strengths and weaknesses and how to exploit them, but the opposite is also true and Froome will be fully au fait with Porte`s.

Whether Porte will be keen to prove a point to Sky and focus his energies on Froome during a race, will be interesting to see. That, in turn, could be exploited by other rivals, or will it be a case of being friends, not really attacking each other until the right moment that will leave no room for exploitation from other teams. The dynamic will be fascinating to observe, as well as whether Richie Porte can finally be consistent enough over three weeks to turn the dream into reality. Roll on Le Tour 2016!

https://youtu.be/41Iu3Zwruq8