Richie Porte

The 2017 Pre-Tour favourite recalls the journey back to racing after his stage 9 horror crash

Returning to training after my Tour crash was a challenge.

[Porte fractured his pelvis and collarbone in a high-speed crash descending the Mont du Chat.] I only started riding again after about five weeks. It took a while to get myself out of the hole. I’d try to get a bit of a regime going with the diet and training and so on but then I’d fall back. I think I bit off more than I could chew. About a month after I’d started training I tried to do one of my favourite four-hour loops around Monaco; it’s nothing when I’m fit, but back then it wrecked me.

I needed to get the hell out of Europe at the end of the season.

I’ve lived in Europe long enough that normally I don’t feel the need to race home to Tasmania, but I had five weeks of just sitting in my apartment in one chair. This year I just needed to get away.

It was strange to watch the rest of the Tour on the TV.