After more than six weeks without competition Richie Porte (BMC Racing) returns to racing on Tuesday at the Tour de Romandie. The race marks the Australian's first head-to-head against Chris Froome (Team Sky) on European soil this season and will offer the chance for both riders to test their form ahead of July's Tour de France.
Porte's last outing came in March's Paris-Nice where won a stage on the Col de la Couillole but saw his GC aspirations go up in smoke on the cross-wind stages. Porte has since taken an entire week off from training and spent time with his wife's family in the England before returning to his base in Monaco.
"It's the first time that I'll get a good measure as to where I'm at compared to Froome," Porte told Cyclingnews in an interview conducted on Friday.
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"I know he's won the race in the past, but I don't know where he's at in terms of form. He's coming down from altitude and I've had a bit of a break. I showed at Tour Down Under, when I hadn't raced since August, that I can do some good training and come into the race fresh but quite fit."
Unlike Porte, Froome has yet to win this season, having only raced the Herald Sun Tour and the Volta a Catalunya. The British rider has won the Tour de Romandie twice during his career, although he missed out last season.
The route for this year's Tour de Romandie features a number of mountain stages and two individual rides against the clock. The race organisers have turned away from long ascents, and instead focused on stages that suit aggressive and punchy racing. That said, the final time trial on the last day could prove to be the most critical stage of all. Porte has not yet studied the route in full but he and his BMC Racing teammates were set to recon parts of the race before Tuesday's prologue.
"It's designed so that the climbs are steeper in the beginning and we don't do any super long ascents. The last time trial is supposed to be hard but it's a tricky one to call on paper. It's been designed to try and keep the race close until the end. A lot will depend on how aggressively we race. It's a prestigious race so I want to go there and try and do something on GC."
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