Team Sky’s Richie Porte confirmed to ride
Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia Northern Ireland !
Belfast, 6 May 2015
Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia Northern Ireland is very excited to announce Richie Porte, Team Sky rider, winner of this year’s Paris-Nice, Tour of Catalunya and Giro del Trentino stages races, will participate in the Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia Northern Ireland on June 21st.
Porte is ranked number 2 rider in the world (having led the rankings all spring) and is going into the Giro d’Italia as one of the main favorites alongside Alberto Contador. Richie’s breakout season was in 2010 when he wore the Giro’s Maglia Rosa in his first Grand Tour, finished 7th overall and won the Best Young Rider’s jersey by a margin of over 7 minutes.
Moving to Team Sky in 2013, Richie’s progression as an athlete has seen him develop into an all round rider capable of winning stage races and individual time trials. He is the current Australian time trial champion and is eagerly awaiting this year’s Giro d’Italia which starts next Saturday, where he will be the leader of Team Sky.
Said Richie Porte, “I am really delighted to be heading to Northern Ireland in June to take part in the inaugural Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia NI. Seeing the spectacular success of the Giro d’Italia Big Start there last year left me wanting to come and visit and ride my bike and experience the scenery and this event gives me the perfect opportunity to do this. My season so far has been going to plan with victories in Paris-Nice, Tour of Catalunya and Giro del Trentino. The Giro starts next Saturday and I am honored to be leading Team Sky with the aim of wearing the leader’s jersey in the final stage and taking the overall victory. One of the best memories I have in professional cycling was wearing the Pink Jersey in the 2010 Giro. It is a special race and the Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia Northern Ireland is a great legacy event. See you all on June 21st !”
Darach McQuaid of Shadetree Sports said, “To have a rider of Richie’s calibre in the current peloton riding our event is something very special indeed. We cannot wait to see Richie share the road in our Gran Fondo in June with all of our riders. We would like to see Northern Ireland “adopt” Richie this May and support his bid to win the Giro d’Italia and bring the winner’s Maglia Rosa to Belfast in June. The hashtag will be #AdoptRichieNI and we will be creating competitions all throughout the Giro offering our riders and fans opportunities to win cool Giro related prizes whilst supporting Richie. We are confident he will enjoy the testing and scenic route we have designed for the Mourne Route and have no doubt his participation will assist us in our goal to create a worldwide interest in Northern Ireland as a cycling destination.”
Susie McCullough, Tourism NI Director of Events said: “The legacy of last year’s Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza is still very much alive across Northern Ireland, and has just been given another great boost with the news that one of the top riders in the world will join us for next month’s Gran Fondo. Registration for the event on 21st June has exceeded expectations and I am confident that Richie Porte’s involvement will deliver a further boost to efforts to stage another sporting spectacular and prove, yet again, Northern Ireland’s ability to host world class events.”
The Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia Northern Ireland is the legacy event from the 2014 Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza which started in Northern Ireland and was a huge success. The Government of Northern Ireland, RCS Sport and Shadetree Sports have entered into a three year agreement to promote the event which will see the same local stakeholder involvement as the Big Start did last year. The celebration of the Giro and all things Italian, combined with the famous Northern Irish welcome and scenery, promises to make this event a very special one on the global sportif calendar.
