21 July, 2016, Megève (FRA)
Richie Porte put in a solid time trial performance on the uphill 17km course on stage 18 of the Tour de France to clock the fourth-fastest time and gain time back on his General Classification rivals.
Sitting in sixth place on the General Classification, Porte was one of the last riders to roll down the ramp and clocked the then-fastest time at the first check point.
The clock stopped at 31’16” on the finish line, 33 seconds behind eventual stage winner and race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky).
Porte remains in sixth place, but gained significant time on other top ten rivals, to now sit 44 seconds off third place and 1’08” off second place with two mountainous stages to come before the race concludes in Paris.
A trip to the podium concluded stage 18 for Porte, as the recipient of the Bernard Hinault award as the rider with the fastest time on the Côte de Domancy check point.
Quotes from the Finish Line
Richie Porte:
“It was a hard time trial and I guess time trials are never nice. Now I’ve had a bit of time to look at the time I’ve put into some of the other General Classification contenders so it was a good day.”
“The goal is now podium so day by day I’m chipping away a little bit more time. I’d have liked to gone a bit quicker today but it was still a good performance. We’ll see how tomorrow goes and then the next day. It’s a great honor to win the Bernard Hinault prize and I think it shows that I’m climbing well. The next two days are full of hard climbs so I’m quite confident and we’ve got a great team and I’m just looking forward to fighting for that podium.”
“Let’s just hope that I can chip away some more time. I really want the podium and I’m going to fight for it. I’m fit and healthy and I hope all of my bad luck is behind me now. We’ll just take it day by day.”
Brent Bookwalter:
“It was just one big climb basically. There were a lot of good, enthusiastic spectators. There’s no real easy way to get up it but I tried to conserve as much as I could. There’s a few really steep sections so I think the power has to be big, and then a couple of really small portions to recover on. I think Richie’s good at that so he should do a good ride.”
Race Profile
Tour de France
Stage 18 Sallanches > Megève (17km)
Top 3: Chris Froome (Team Sky), Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin), Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team)
BMC Racing Team Top 3: 4. Richie Porte, 25. Damiano Caruso, 64. Michael Schaer
BMC Racing Team Top 3 on GC: 6. Richie Porte, 17. Tejay van Garderen, 27. Damiano Caruso
