Porte serves early warning
It would have been easy to dismiss the Australian press and their giddy embrace of Richie Porte's win as pure hype but that would have been an injustice to all concerned.
There is something different about Porte this year, and it's not just the fact that his weight appears as low as it has ever been before. It's the steel in his demeanour and a spring in his step that suggests he knows something we don't when it comes to how the rest of his season will pan out. Yes, this is ‘just the Tour Down Under' and yes the nearest opposition was an undercooked Esteban Chaves competing on shallow climbs, but Porte and BMC still needed to deliver when called upon.
Porte's performances on the climbs should of course be taken with a pinch of salt, when looking ahead to the rest of the season but the groundwork he has laid behind the scenes with BMC is significant. Tejay van Garderen has been shunted to the Giro; riders like Fran Ventoso and Nico Roche has bolstered the domestique hub, and Porte is into his second full season with a team who strived to sign him several years ago. The pieces in Porte's Tour puzzle are coming together.
Of course this doesn't mean that Porte will win, or even podium at the Tour, and we have yet to see any of his principle rivals in action, yet this is the best Porte we've seen, and that alone is worth noting. (DB)
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Will this be a common sight for Porte's rivals in 2017 (Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Haas is closing in on a major win
Nathan Haas may have missed out on the final podium by the skin of his teeth but the growing sense within the paddock is that the Australian is on the cusp of a major result. Now 27, he finally looks to be delivering on the early promise his career hinted. The phase of stagnation that surrounded him at Slipstream has been left behind.
In 2016, his first season at Dimension Data, Haas won a stage in the Tour of Burgos before taking two top-10 places at the Canadian WorldTour races and he has carried on where he left off this January. In seven days of racing he has finished no lower than 9th and his impressively mature ride on Willunga Hill - although eclipsed by Porte - was the latest standout performance in this slow burning tale.
Haas will never be as fast as a Michael Matthews, as cunning as a Greg Van Avermaet or as complete as a Peter Sagan, and while the fourth overall at TDU will hurt him for the manner in which it slipped through his fingers, it feels as though a major result in just around the corner. A free role at the Giro, and a chance to shine in the Ardennes should be on the cards. (DB)
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