It was hard to tell if Richie Porte's (BMC) smile was one of disbelief or of resignation as he spoke to reporters past the finish line at Saint-Gervais after stage 19 of the Tour de France. If the BMC man didn't have bad luck on this race, after all, he wouldn't have had any luck at all.
After losing 1:45 when he punctured in the finale of stage 2, Porte looked to be setting his Tour back on track when he crashed into the back of a television motorbike on Mont Ventoux, an incident that conditioned his performance in the following day's time trial in the Ardèche.
Unlike last year's Giro d'Italia, however, when an accumulation of bad luck seemed to take its toll on Porte's psyche as much as his physique, he responded well, and was among the strongest on the Tour's first day in the Alps on Tuesday, and was tipped by Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) as the man most likely to move up to the podium after the final two days of climbing.
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A crash on the rain-soaked drop off the Montée de Bisanne, however, put a different slant on Porte's assault on the podium. Although he gamely chased back on and even attacked on the climb to the line, he went on to concede ground when the yellow jersey group broke up on the final ramps before the finish.
"I left a bit of skin back on the descent. It was such a hard day and just a bit of a mess out there in the final, I think everybody kind of came down. I worked well with what I had and tomorrow is another day," Porte said.
"Today even uphill around the corners it was slippery as well. We'll how tomorrow pans out but I gave it my all today."
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