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Richie Porte's Tour de France diary: stage three

Richie Porte

Stage 3: Verviers, Belgium to Longwy, France, 212.5 kilometres

Success is not always shown by the result, as much as we all love to win, but sometimes by how well the team rides. 

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Tour de France 2017: Porte's impressive attack

Slovakian world champion Peter Sagan won his eighth career Tour de France stage victory holding off an aggressive attack by Australian Richie Porte.

And with Wednesday's first mountain finish to La Planche des Belles Filles in mind, I've got to say that the performance of the BMC Racing Team in Monday's third stage was terrific.

My teammates were absolutely incredible in the 212.5 km stage from Verviers, Belgium to Longwy – every single one. Sure, we didn't get the victory. We were not quite able to get Greg Van Avermaet (fourth) up as we had all hoped. And after my teammates positioned me so well for a crack at the win, I fell short with about 500m to go, even though I gave it a dig.

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But looking ahead to what's to come now, starting with Wednesday's fifth stage in the Vosges mountains, there was a lot to take from the stage. 

A few teammates to mention:

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Alessandro De Marchi was up there on Monday. He rode really strongly in the last 40 km when that's not really his role. He would normally be on call to help me in the mountains. He also rode really well for me in the Critérium du Dauphiné, my last race before the Tour in which I placed second overall. Alessandro was then very strong in the Italian national road championship race, the weekend before the Tour started.

Nico Roche, who joined us at BMC from Sky this year, was also great on Monday. He set a great tempo on the 1.6 km climb to the finish which helped position me for the final in which I attacked but was passed with 500 metres to go by the Slovakian world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Maybe I should have committed a little more at that point. I sorted of hesitated there, but then it would have been a long 500m to finish off, especially against the likes of Sagan.

No matter, it was terrific to have a positive finish like that.

It wasn't the easiest of days.  It was all corners and up and down all day, and I hadn't seen the finish – only by video. So, how it unfolded was a good sign for what is to come. 

It was also a good sign that I still have the form that I will need to give this Tour a real crack over the next three weeks.

For Wednesday's stage to La Planche de Belles Filles, we will probably decide the roles of those who can help me in the the climbs on the day, depending how they feel at the time.

Another teammate to throw into the equation there besides Nico and Alessandro is Damiano Caruso who was a great help for me in last year's Tour where I finished fifth.He's come here off a great Tour de Suisse where he finished second.

Wednesday will be tactical between every contender's team. Team Sky, with Geraint Thomas in the yellow jersey and Chris Froome as their leader and the defending champion, are going to have to control the race which is good for us. 

Maybe we can throw someone up the road in a break and try to ride across to them to have extra resources up front.

Who knows? The options are numerous and will probably keep most people guessing until the stage actually unravels.

To those of you following the Tour, prepare for a great race.

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