Australian Richie Porte was promoted from “spare wheel” to Team Sky’s new leader after defending champion Chris Froome crashed out of the Tour de France on Wednesday.
After a rain-sodden, crash-littered fifth stage saw Sky lose their leader early on for the second time in four years, team manager Dave Brailsford told reporters: “Richie Porte came on the Tour to be the team leader No. 2 two and he showed great ability to ride the cobbles the way he did. We’re very happy to have Richie out there. The fight in the mountain lies ahead.”
While Froome’s premature exit was a huge blow to the Sky team, Porte climbed to eighth in the overall standings on Wednesday to stay in touch with leader Vincenzo Nibali.
“It’s a massive loss losing Chris,” Porte told Sky’s Web site. “But he’ll back hungrier than ever next year.
“Now I have an opportunity to go for as high a GC [general classification] position as I can,” he said.
“We saw it with Bradley [Wiggins]... He bounced back and went on the podium in the Vuelta,” Brailsford said, referring to when Wiggins crashed out of the Tour in 2011, but finished second in the Vuelta a Espana.
With Wiggins left off Sky’s Tour rosta, Porte, who last year showed he has the ability to mount an overall challenge, offers Brailsford a worthy Plan B.
The Australian was supposed to lead Sky at the Giro d’Itali, but withdrew before the start.
Asked if Porte was fit enough to meet the demands of the Tour, Brailsford said: “Richie is in great shape. He had a slower start to the season than usual, but he’s fresh.”
“The reason we decided to call him as our second leader was his climbing abilities. Today was a big challenge and he did ever so well,” the team manager added.
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