Richie Porte

Richard Julian "Richie" Porte (born 30 January 1985) is an Australian professional road bicycle racer on BMC Racing Team and two-time winner of Paris–Nice.

In his first year at 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 the 2013 Paris–Nice. He served as a super-domestique for Bradley Wiggins in the 2012 Tour de France and Chris Froome in the 2013 and 2015 Tour de France.

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

Career

Early years, Team UniSA-Australia & Praties

Tour de France

The Tour de France (French pronunciation: ​[tuʁ də fʁɑ̃s]) is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase paper sales for the magazine L'Auto; it is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend around the globe. Participation expanded from a primarily French field, as riders from all over the world began to participate in the race each year. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that the teams that compete in the race are mostly UCI WorldTeams, with the exception of the teams that the organizers invite.

The Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España make up cycling's prestigious, three-week-long Grand Tours; the Tour is the oldest and generally considered the most prestigious of the three. Traditionally, the race is held primarily in the month of July. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same with the appearance of time trials, the passage through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps, and the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The modern editions of the Tour de France consist of 21 day-long segments (stages) over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi). The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France.

Porte

Porte may refer to:

See also

Chris Froome

Christopher Clive Froome, OBE (born 20 May 1985) is a British professional road racing cyclist for UCI ProTeam Team Sky, who competed for Kenya until 2008. Twice a winner of the Tour de France, he is seen as one of the most successful riders of the recent era. Brought up in Kenya and South Africa, Froome has ridden under a British licence since 2008 on the basis of his passport and his father's and grandparents' country of birth.

In 2007 Froome turned professional at the age of 22 with Team Konica Minolta. He moved to Europe to further his career, joining team Barloworld. In 2010 he moved to Team Sky and has become one of the team's key cyclists. Froome made his breakthrough as a Grand Tour contender during the 2011 Vuelta a España where he finished second overall.

At the 2012 Tour de France, riding as a super-domestique for Bradley Wiggins, Froome won stage seven and finished second overall, behind only Wiggins in the same race as the best British performance in the race's history. In the same year he also won the bronze medal in the time trial event at the Olympic Games and finished fourth in the Vuelta a España. His first multi-stage race win came in 2013, in the Tour of Oman, followed by wins in the Critérium International, the Tour de Romandie, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Tour de France.

France

France (French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and has a total population of 66.6 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.

During the Iron Age, what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire, which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks, who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance, France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots).