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Richie Porte rest day Twitter Q&A

Wednesday 16 July 2014 18:17, UK

Image: Porte: In good form both on the bike and off

Currently sitting second overall at the Tour de France, we put the best Twitter fan questions to Richie. Read what he had to say.

The Tasmanian answers your questions

As the Tour de France reaches its first rest day Richie Porte sits a strong second overall. With 11 tough stages still to go we caught up with the Tasmanian to ask him the best fan questions posted on Twitter. You can follow Richie on Twitter - @richie_porte Richie Porte: The thing I miss the most about home is family. That’s a given, but I’d say one big thing I miss about Tassie is that it’s just so relaxed. I can roll out of my door, through the second biggest town in Tasmania, and I’m out into country roads within 10 minutes. That’s probably what I miss most from a cycling point of view. RP: That’s a tough one. At the moment he looks pretty good. We’ll try something somewhere. Maybe he’ll have a bad day. There’s still a long way to go so we’ll see what happens. RP: I’d say it’s a toss up between the patron of the bunch Bernie Eisel and Geraint Thomas. I think our guys are probably the best banter-talkers or sledgers in the peloton. RP: It’s not even worth answering is it. Of course it’s Vegemite (laughs). It’s just ten times better. But it’s an acquired taste. RP: Obviously there’s a little bit more pressure. My job last year was to always be Chris (Froome’s) last guy in the mountains. All that really changes is that now it’s all about looking after myself as much as I can. I think that’s what the team are good at – putting me in the same position that we’ve put Chris or Bradley (Wiggins) into in the past. RP: I honestly wouldn’t have a clue. I don’t remember. The last competitive one I did was in 2006. I always tried to win this race – it was called the Bridport Triathlon and it was close to where I lived in Tassie. I always tried to win it when I was a full-on triathlete but I never quite could. Then I went back when I’d stopped doing triathlon, just for a bit of fun, and I won it! RP: Unfortunately I don’t have one now after Chris left the race. RP: I like MotoGP and a follow the AMA Supercross from America. That’s what I wish I could do – ride MotoGP! RP: For me being a Tasmanian triathlete there was a guy called Craig Walton. He was the big thing in triathlon for a while. He was the best swim-bike guy and then they changed the rules so that you could draft on the bike. I think had that not changed he’d have been an absolute world-beater. Everyone always used to know what he was going to do - he didn't care. He’d smash them in the swim, smash them on the bike but he was a big fella and he didn’t run that quick compared to the little guys. He’d always try and hold on in the run. For me that was my sporting idol. But then when I was growing up watching cycling it was always guys like Robbie McEwen, Baden Cooke and the Aussie trailblazers. Bradley McGee was big influence on me when I was on Saxo. RP: The Giro. For sure. There’s something about Italy. That’s where I first went to when I left Australia to ride. I love the country and I love the race. RP: I had a four-and-a-half kilo Toblerone at home last year in April when I had a bit of downtime. It was gone within a couple of weeks. I got to the point where I knew I had to stop it so I gave a couple of the massive chunks away. In the off-season that’s definitely something I’ll have a look at! RP: The rest days go so quickly. You don’t do much. You try and sleep in but I always find that when I can sleep in I always get up early. That was the case this morning. We rode probably an hour and a half this earlier today. It’s always quite relaxed. You don’t want the body to shut down and you hold on to a bit of water retention. You have to be mindful and you can’t go crazy with what you eat. RP: If I’m with the team chefs Søren or Henrik I’ll always start with an omelette. I’ll always have prosciutto crudo and cheese in mine. Then I always move onto porridge. It’s such an English thing to have a bowl of porridge. There’s a few little things we can add in there like nuts or fresh raspberries and blueberries. Things like that. That’s probably what I enjoy the most about racing is the food that we get. RP: I guess it depends on who is at the race to be honest. There are a few DJs on the bus. The main three are Froomey with his Tiesto, G with his Eminem and CJ Sutton with his Justin Bieber and any trashy pop you can think of! CJ always busts it out and then blames it on his fiancée or his sister. If I’m warming up for a time trial I’ll listen to something like Tiesto. It puts you in a good mood. RP: I think I got a bit stuck on the front. The guys seemed to be racing me and not Nibali. It’s tactics and at the time it was annoying – but that’s racing. There are plenty more chances for us to have a go.

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