Speaking in the first press conference of the day ahead of the teams presentation, Richie Porte explained how he hopes to capitalize on his Tour de Suisse recent victory to make the podium of the Tour de France for the first time: “I’m super motivated for his Tour. I don’t think there’s a huge favourite for the overall. It was nice to see Chris Froome ride the Giro. I hope he’s bugged. I was here in 2011 [at the start of the Tour de France in Vendée] with Alberto Contador, so I know how difficult it is to win Giro and Tour the same year. If anyone is able to do it, it’s Chris. He’s done the Giro with a super strong team, he’s here with an even stronger team. He’s obviously here for doing it but I hope that he is tired. Vincenzo [Nibali] and Nairo [Quintana] will never give him an easy day, we all hope to end his winning streak. Personally, I hope for no bad luck along the road. I’m looking forward to stage 3. We’ve got all places covered for the team time trial. Maybe one of us will take the yellow jersey. It might be too early but it would be absolutely brilliant for my team. We have the horse power to go through those first nine tricky stages. The pavés aren’t really my sort of things, but [Paris-Roubaix winner] Greg Van Avermaet is not so bad on the cobbles… It’s the most fearful stage to look at on paper, but we can turn it into something positive. Not all GC teams have the guys we have for this stage.”
