Backspin: Porte shows pre-Tour promise, Roglič wins at home, Rivera takes out OVO Energy Womens Tour

Australian Tour de France hopeful Richie Porte did not mince his words when describing the importance of his Tour de Suisse win on Sunday. The 33-year-old BMC Racing leader claimed the overall win in the nine-day UCI WorldTour stage race by a 1-minute 2-second margin over Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) and 1:12 over Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Despite not winning a stage, Porte assumed the overall lead from BMC teammate Stefan Küng following Stage 5 won by Italian Diego Ulissi (UAE-Team Emirates).

“This was a big goal – let’s not beat around the bush,” said Porte after the final stage time trial won by Küng. “It’s a very important race and I think it’s disrespectful to say it’s a lead-in race because it means so much to win it. I think going forward into the Tour, it’s a good sign for me to come here and beat a class field.”

Like fellow BMC’er Greg van Avermaet did following his Tour de Yorkshire success, Porte also paid tribute to former team owner Andy Rihs, who died in April.

“I’ve won races like Paris-Nice, Catalunya and Romandie but this race is so special,” said Porte of the importance of the win before honouring Rihs. “To come here after the passing of Andy Rihs earlier in the season and win his home tour, it’s a massive satisfaction.”

The Tasmanian is set to return to the Tour de France in less than three weeks time to avenge last year’s early exit following a horrifying high-speed crash on the technical Mont du Chat descent on Stage 9. The accident left Porte with a fractured pelvis, a broken collarbone and extensive abrasions, and other than a DNF at the Japan Cup in October, it basically ended his season.

Previously Porte finished fifth on general classification in 2016 in a Tour he shared co-leadership responsibilities with American Tejay van Garderen, who finished 29th on GC.

“Before this race, I hadn’t raced since Tour de Romandie,” explained Porte regarding his next steps. “I was at home for the birth of my son two weeks ago and I’ve only had one night at home with him so, I think it’s great for me to get to go home for a bit of time before a training camp and then hopefully I’ll be better at the Tour de France.”

Slovenian Primož Roglič’s continuing evolution from national ski jumper to pro cyclist continues a positive trajectory with a sensational win in his five-day homeland race of Tour of Slovenia (UCI 2.1) following two straight stage wins, including the 21.5-kilometre individual time trial finale on Sunday.

“The result is perfect,” said the 28-year-old LottoNL-Jumbo rider of his second career Slovenia victory in four years. “I’m very happy that I’ve been able to win here for my home crowd. But this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my teammates and fans. My fans were great all week. This victory is also for them. It’s been a week I’ll never forget.”

Roglič won the overall by 1:50 over Stage 3 winner Rigoberto Urán (EF Education First-Drapac) and by 2:14 over Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida).

“For me, the Tour of Slovenia has been an ideal race in the build-up to the Tour de France,” he said. “The Tour begins in three weeks, and this race was perfect to get the intensity back in the legs. The upcoming weeks will mainly consist of training and resting, and hopefully I’m ready for the Tour. But for now, I’ll enjoy my victory.”

Urán said he was also happy with the result leading into the Tour de France, where he was runner up last year.

“I am so happy, second place is great,” said the 31-year-old Colombian, who finished second on GC at the Tour last year. “It’s really good for my team and for me. It’s a good result before the Tour.”

American Coryn Rivera (Team Sunweb) lifted the leader’s jersey from Belgian rival Jolien d’Hoore (Mitchelton-Scott) following her Stage 2 win and never looked back en route to the overall victory at the 2018 OVO Energy Women’s Tour in Wales on Sunday.

The GC result marks the first Women’s WorldTour win for Sunweb, and the fourth victory of the season for the 2017 women’s Tour of Flanders winner, who also claimed two stages at the Internationale Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour last month.

“Being in the leader’s jersey is about being calm and in control and the whole team were exactly that throughout the whole week,” explained the 25-year-old, who also finished second on points and fourth in KOM. “Today was a difficult stage, but we set the pace on the climbs and were in good position all day.

“This is something special and new for me,” Rivera continued. “I’m really proud of the work that I’ve put in and the work that the team and staff have put in this week. We played to our strengths with the intermediate sprints, we knew that this race comes down to seconds so we put our energy in that at the beginning of the race and this proved to be the difference at the end.

“I’m really proud to have taken the win, the jersey belongs to the whole team.”

Like Roglič above, Canadian rider James Piccoli also gave his fellow countrymen a prideful victory as the 26-year-old Canuck sealed his overall Tour de Beauce (2.2) win in Saint-Georges following his penultimate stage triumph a day earlier in Québec City.

The Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling rider racing for Team Canada claimed the 33rd edition’s final GC by 11 seconds over Great Britain’s Daniel Whitehouse (Interpro Stradalli Cycling) and 27 seconds over Romanian stage winner Serghei Tvetcov (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling), who won the points classification fresh off an overall win at Tour de Korea earlier this month.

“Still can’t really believe it to be honest, still hasn’t totally sunk in,” Piccoli told Pedal Magazine following the fifth and final stage won by compatriot Pier-André Coté (Silber Pro Cycling). “The team’s plan all week was do as best as we could in GC with Jordan Cheyne and I, but to be honest we had no idea it would play out the way it did.

“With two stages to go we were hungry because the first part of the race had not gone to plan due to some bad luck, but we vowed to fight on and make the race hard, attack and animate.

“The team did an unbelievable job,” he added. “We were at the front of the race the last two stages all the time. We tore the race to shreds and we ended up coming out to victory.”

The win marks the first for a Canadian at Tour de Beauce since multi-time national road race and time trial champion and fellow Team Canada rider Svein Tuft (Mitchelton-Scott) did so in 2008 while riding for UCI Continental team Symmetrics.

Canadians Jack Burke (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis) and Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) rounded out the top five on GC at 49 seconds and 1:03 respectively.

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