Richie Porte is one of the major favourites to win this year’s Paris-Nice, which starts with a 6.7km prologue in Maurepas on Sunday and finishes a week later with the 9.5km time trial up the Col d’Eze.
Porte (Sky), 30 and the 2013 winner, has started this season superbly. He already has wins in the Australian time trial championship and the Queen stages of two tours – stage 5 of the WorldTour opening Tour Down Under to Willunga Hill in which the Tasmanian also placed second overall at 2 seconds to fellow Australian and world hour record holder Rohan Dennis (BMC), and stage 4 of the Volta ao Algarve to Malhão before finishing fourth overall at 1m 14s to British teammate and winner Geraint Thomas.
On Thursday, after winding up his final preparations for Paris-Nice, Porte spoke to Cyclingnews from his base in Monaco about his goals for the second World Tour event of the year and his thoughts about how he is tracking for the Giro d’Italia (May 9-31) in which he is aiming for a top finish in the overall classification.
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Rupert Guinness: How are you feeling off the back of the Volta ao Algarve?
Richie Porte: I went into Algarve as team leader and had a shocker of a time trial [on stage 3]. I went the wrong way into one of the corners [and finished 19th at 1m 3s to Tony Martin.] There was a policeman on the corner waving his arms around where cars were parked and I got a little bit lost in the moment. But it was nice to then do Algarve with no pressure, knowing ‘G’ [Thomas] was absolutely flying. He has sacrificed for me so many times and to ride up that mountain [finish on stage 4] to protect his interest, then go for the stage and win it … it was an unbelievable day.
RG: How will you and Thomas race Paris-Nice?
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