Richie Porte

He began the 2020 season by taking the lead midway through the Tour Down Under, but then Daryl Impey took a 0:02 advantage going into the final stage on Old Willunga Hill. He did not win this stage for the 7th year in a row, as he finished 2nd to Matthew Holmes, however he gained enough time over Diego Ulissi, Rohan Dennis and the other contenders to win the race for the second time in his career.

For the 2019 season, Porte moved to the Trek–Segafredo team. For the 6th year in a row he won the Queen Stage at the Tour Down Under. During the 2019 Tour de France he was in 10th place overall when the race was shortened due to landslides and dangerous weather. He would finish the Tour in 11th place about 5 minutes behind 10th place Warren Barguil and ten minutes ahead of 12th place Guillaume Martin.

In the 2018 season, Porte won the Tour de Suisse, finished second at the Tour Down Under, and third at the Tour de Romandie. Again he crashed out of the Tour de France on stage 9, this time suffering a collarbone injury. Once again he was in good position prior to the high mountains being within a minute of Super-Domestique and eventual winner Geraint Thomas and overall leader Greg Van Avermaet. He was also ahead of most other favorites including Romain Bardet, Mikel Landa, Tom Dumoulin, Froome and Nairo Quintana.

In the 2017 season, Porte finished 12th in the World Tour individual classification, having won the Tour Down Under; he won the queen stage of the race, at Old Willunga Hill for the fourth successive season. Porte also won the Tour de Romandie and finished 2nd in the Critérium du Dauphiné. He crashed out of the Tour de France on stage 9 while descending the Mont du Chat; he had been in an excellent position going into the high mountains being within about 30 seconds of the lead with only Dan Martin, Froome and Fabio Aru ahead of him.

Ahead of the 2016 season Porte highlighted the Tour de France and the Olympic road race and time trial as his targets for the year. He started his season strongly in Australia, finishing second to new teammate Rohan Dennis in the Australian National Time Trial Championships before going to the Tour Down Under, where he took his first victory in BMC colours by winning stage 5 to Willunga Hill for the third year in a row and finished second overall. He subsequently struggled in the Tour of Oman in February, losing over three minutes to the leaders on each of the first two stages, before bouncing back upon returning to Europe, taking third place in the general classification at Paris–Nice after attacking the last stage's final climb alongside Alberto Contador followed by an overall fourth place in the Volta a Catalunya. Following his third place at Paris-Nice, Porte spent one week as world number 1, during the period in which the new rankings system was forming. Porte targeted the Tour de France, but lost time early on with a mechanical problem on stage 2. Along with Bauke Mollema and Froome he was leading an attack up Mont Ventoux which involved all three riders being taken down when a motorcycle suddenly stopped in front of them disrupting the performance of all three riders and causing the ensuing chaos which involved Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux. He rallied to perform well in the mountains and individual time trials, finishing fifth overall, his highest Grand Tour placing to date.

In 2015, after winning the Australian National Time Trial Championships, Porte won two stages as well as the final overall classification of Paris–Nice, winning that race for the second time in three years and ending up atop the UCI world road cycling rankings.

Porte started the 2015 season with success, taking victory in the Australian National Time Trial Championships. Much like the previous season, Porte took victory on the queen stage of the Tour Down Under at Old Willunga Hill resulting in a second place on the overall general classification. Porte then returned to Europe at the Volta ao Algarve again taking victory on the queen stage to the summit finish of Malhão, this stage win succeeded in elevating Porte to fourth overall on general classification behind teammate Geraint Thomas, as well as taking the win in the mountains classification. Porte's next victory came at Paris–Nice where he and teammate Thomas took a one-two victory on the summit finish of Croix de Chaubouret. Despite losing the chance to take the overall lead after a crash on the penultimate stage of the race, a victory in the final-day time trial (again on the Col d'Èze), by a margin of 13 seconds to his closest rival, gave him his second overall victory in the race in the past three seasons. Furthermore, this pushed him to the top of the UCI Road World Rankings.

After finishing third behind Simon Gerrans and Cadel Evans in the national road race championships, Porte began his 2014 season at his home race, the Tour Down Under. He won the penultimate fifth stage, finishing on Old Willunga Hill, and finished fourth in the general classification on the final stage. Porte then followed up his result in the Tour Down Under with second overall at the Vuelta a Andalucía. Porte's season then took a downwards turn finishing 22nd overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Porte then failed to start at Tirreno–Adriatico and failed to finish at; Tour de Romandie, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Volta a Catalunya, culminating in him taking leadership of Team Sky due to Chris Froome's abandonment and then finishing 23rd at the Tour de France. Porte then failed to finish the Vattenfall Cyclassics as well as GP Ouest-France which led him to end his season early after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

In the absence of Wiggins and Froome, Porte was selected to lead Team Sky at Paris–Nice. He won the fifth stage of the race – the queen stage – with an attack on La Montagne de Lure to take the lead of the race, from Garmin–Sharp's Andrew Talansky. Porte also won the final time trial on the Col d'Èze by 23 seconds over Talansky to seal overall victory by 55 seconds. Porte's time was only four seconds short of the course record, set by Wiggins the previous year.

Porte entered the Tour de France as super-domestique for Froome. On stage eight – the first mountain stage – Peter Kennaugh and then Porte dropped most of the overall contenders and brought back an earlier attack by Nairo Quintana on the final climb before Froome attacked to take the stage win and overall lead. Porte was able to finish second on the stage, 51 seconds behind Froome, to rise to second overall. However, in the following stage Porte cracked following numerous early attacks by Movistar Team, Garmin–Sharp and Saxo–Tinkoff riders, leaving Froome completely isolated for most of the stage. Porte lost over ten minutes and dropped out of overall contention, although Froome managed to avoid time loss by fending off several attacks from Alejandro Valverde and Quintana. On stage 15, Porte again provided the launch pad for Froome's victory on Mont Ventoux. On stage 18 – which finished at Alpe d'Huez – Porte's assistance proved vital for Froome, as Froome ran into difficulty towards the end of the stage; Porte dropped back to the team car to illegally get energy gels for his leader, then paced him to the end of the climb to limit his losses to Quintana and Joaquim Rodríguez. Porte and Froome each received a 20-second time penalty and a fine of 200 Swiss francs for the infringement. Froome went on to comfortably win the Tour by four minutes, 20 seconds over Quintana with Porte finishing 19th overall.

Porte's next victory came in late March when he secured the overall win at the Volta a Catalunya. Despite not winning a stage, Porte won the race by a margin of four seconds from Alejandro Valverde, after achieving two top-5 stage placings on the decisive finishes of La Molina and Valls. In late April Porte notched up his third overall win of the season, taking the Giro d'Italia warm-up Giro del Trentino four-day stage race. Porte took a decisive stage victory on the Queen stage summit finish to Brentonico giving him a margin of 24 seconds to his closest rival, Mikel Landa. Porte would carry the majority of this gap to the finish in Cles. In doing so he became the first ever rider to win the Paris–Nice, Volta a Catalunya and Giro del Trentino treble in one season.

In the Giro d'Italia, Porte made headlines by having a motor-home to sleep in as he was the team leader while his teammates slept in hotels. He was competitive during the first week of the race, and sat third overall after stage nine. However, on Stage 10 Porte punctured 5 km from the finish, and accepted a change of wheels from Simon Clarke from the Orica–GreenEDGE team. Porte initially lost 47 seconds to the peloton, but was then docked two minutes and fined 200 Swiss francs for accepting Clarke's wheel as this manoeuvre is illegal according to UCI rules, dropping him to 12th place overall. On stage 13, Porte was involved in a crash 3.3 kilometres (2.1 miles) from the stage finish, and lost a further two minutes. Porte suffered a bad individual time trial on stage 14 and an even worse stage 15, where he lost 27 minutes to then-leader Alberto Contador. After that debacle, he gave the leadership of the team to Leopold König. After the aforementioned stage, he announced he was abandoning the race due to a leg injury.

Porte joined Team Sky ahead of the 2012 season. In January 2012, he competed in his national championships in Buninyong and Learmonth, where he finished third in the road race, and placed fifth in the time trial several days later. In February 2012, Porte took the lead of the Volta ao Algarve after winning the race's queen stage, the summit finish at the Alto do Malhão in Loulé. He held the lead until the end of the race, eventually finishing 37 seconds clear of defending race winner, Tony Martin. Porte then worked for Bradley Wiggins in Paris–Nice, helping his leader win the race overall. Porte was a key member of the Sky teams that helped Wiggins go on to win the Tour de Romandie, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de France. Porte then rode the Vuelta a España in support of Chris Froome, and took second place on stage 20.

Although the 2011 season brought less individual success for Porte, through the expectation that he would become a key domestique for Alberto Contador in his overall victory in the Giro d'Italia, Porte continued his strong time trial performances; placing third in Paris–Nice and eighth at the Tour of the Basque Country. Porte then won the fourth stage at Vuelta a Castilla y León by virtue of Contador's disqualification. Porte then placed third in the final stage time trial at the Giro d'Italia, and fourth in the final stage time trial at the Tour de France. Porte then went on to win fifth stage time trial at the Post Danmark Rundt, in Helsingør, by a margin of 10 seconds over teammate, Gustav Larsson. Porte then finished his season with sixth position in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

In his first year at UCI ProTour level, Porte won the young rider classification at the 2010 Giro d'Italia, and featured prominently in the general classification at several stage races. Porte moved to Team Sky for the 2012 season, and quickly made an impact, winning the Volta ao Algarve. In 2013, Porte achieved his biggest victory to date, winning two stages and the overall classification in Paris–Nice. He served as a super-domestique for three Team Sky Tour de France victories: Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome in 2013 and 2015.

At the end of the 2009 season, he signed a two-year contract with Team Saxo Bank. His coach at Team Saxo Bank was compatriot Bradley McGee. In April, Porte went on to win the stage 4 time trial at the Tour de Romandie, finishing in tenth place overall. In May he made his Grand Tour debut in the Giro d'Italia where he finished seventh overall and won the young rider classification, by a margin of 7' 29" over Robert Kišerlovski, cementing his place as a rider for the future. He also led the race during stages 11 to 13 and thus wore the pink jersey. In July Porte placed tenth in the Clásica de San Sebastián and had a further run of strong performances; second in the stage 5 time trial of the Post Danmark Rundt, fourth overall at the Eneco Tour and fourth overall at the Tour of Britain. Porte narrowly missed out on the bronze medal in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships, held in the Australian city of Geelong; he finished in fourth place, six and a half seconds down on third-place finisher, Germany's Tony Martin.

Porte started dedicated cycling in 2006 when he was 21 years of age. He comes from a triathlon background, having competed in the sport since 2003. Prior to that he was a competitive swimmer. Porte rode for UniSA–Australia at the 2008 Tour Down Under and finished ninth overall. He raced with a Tasmanian UCI Continental team, Praties, in 2008 and 2009, taking fifth place in the 2008 Herald Sun Tour and winning the Tours of Perth and Tasmania. Porte rose and under the eye of Andrea Tafi on the Monsummanese Grassi Mapei amateur Italian team in 2009, finishing tenth at the 2009 Tour de Langkawi. His performance at the 2009 Baby Giro, where he won the individual time trial, brought him to the attention of the professional teams.

Richard Julian Porte (born 30 January 1985) is an Australian professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Trek–Segafredo. He is a two-time winner of Paris–Nice.