The leader of the Giro is a 25 year old Tasmanian- Richie Porte. This article says he used to run sub 30 minute 10ks DURING triathlons. Can anyone confirm this with results to any real/certified races? This would put him as one of the very best Triathlete runners in the sport- ever. He’s obviously a very talented cyclist.
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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giros-leader-porte-exceptional-in-more-than-cycling
“There are two things people might not know about Richie,” Wurf said to *Cyclingnews *at the start of stage 12. “He broke Cadel Evans’ record of the ascent of Mount Wellington two years ago by one minute. This is the most famous climb we have in Tasmania. We always use it for training.”
“Secondly, when he was a triathlete, he used to run the 10 kilometres under 30 minutes after swimming and cycling. In Australia, we always judge an athlete by how fast he can run. Or by how fast he can swim, but Richie was an exceptional swimmer, too.”
Chronologically speaking, cycling is Porte’s third sport. He switched from swimming to triathlon and then finally to cycling in 2006. “He’s been a cyclist for four years only,” said Andrea Tafi, who is the most recent Italian winner of Paris-Roubaix. Tafi welcomed Porte as an amateur in Tuscany and connected him to Saxo Bank, a team Tafi rode for when it was named CSC in 2003.
When Porte joined the Danish outfit, he impressed everyone during the winter training camp, when all the riders were asked to swim as long as they could underwater. The stars of that exercise had scored around 50 metres.
Then when the Australian neo-pro took his turn, some staff members and riders had a moment of panic as they didn’t see Porte coming out where they expected. Instead, he swam a distance of 72 metres, giving an early indication to his new team and staff of his lung capacity.
Since this exploit, the “Tasmanian devil” Porte has been called “fish” at Saxo Bank.