Richie Porte hopes Chris Froome is too tired for Tour de France title challenge

Sport360 staff 15:24 05/07/2018
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  • Richie Porte is hoping Chris Froome is too tired to retain his Tour de France title.

    Froome is targeting a record-equalling fifth Tour title this month, but to get it he will need to complete a rare Giro d’Italia-Tour double and make it four Grand Tour wins in a row having also won La Vuelta last year.

    Porte helped Froome to Tour victories in 2013 and 2015 before leaving Team Sky to join BMC in pursuit of his own Grand Tour ambitions, but is yet to better his old friend and is looking for a helping hand in France.

    “It was nice to watch him in the Giro, and I hope he’s tired” the Tasmanian said.

    “I hope that he is tired. Guys like Vincenzo (Nibali) and Nairo (Quintana) are never going to give him an easy day. A lot can happen out on the road and if he does have a bad day quite a few guys are ready to end his winning streak.”

    Froome is clear to race in the Tour after the UCI ended its anti-doping investigation into an adverse analytical finding he returned for Salbutamol at La Vuelta and Tour organisers subsequently dropped their attempts to bar him from the event.

    As Salbutamol is a specified substance, Froome’s case should have been dealt with in private unless a anti-doping case was proven, but the story was leaked in December.

    Asked his opinion on the matter, Porte said: “He’s been cleared. It was never really for us, it’s above us, it doesn’t really matter what our opinion is. It’s just a shame that once again cycling airs its dirty laundry in public.

    “Whether you like Chris or not, he had a right to have his privacy respected. That’s more the story, where the leak has come from.”

    Porte arrives at the Tour on the back of his victory in the Tour de Suisse last month, but his credentials as a one-week stage racer are not in question.

    The 33-year-old is yet to make the podium of a Grand Tour with a litany of illnesses, injury and pure bad luck derailing his tilts at the Giro and Tour titles over the past three years.

    “I’m not getting any younger,” he said. “We have a super team this year. The first nine stages are pretty tricky but I think we have the horsepower to get me through those. We’ve had a great season so far and I’m supermotivated for this Tour.”

    Sky on Wednesday released data from Froome’s decisive win on stage 19 of the Giro, when he used a stunning 80km breakaway launched on the Colle delle Finestre to overturn a three-minute deficit to set up overall victory.

    “I think they put that out there and hope guys underfuel,” he said. “I don’t really take much into it. Everyone knows what they’re doing. We’re all professional athletes and we know how to fuel. We don’t need to read online what Sky say they’re doing. We’ve been doing this long enough to know how to eat.”

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