It was in July 2021 that the inaugural edition of the Devil's Cardigan gravel race kicked off in the cold southern hemisphere winter weather of Tasmania. At the time Richie Porte was halfway around the world, in the midst of summer, racing his final Tour de France with Ineos Grenadiers. The year before he had been triumphant at the French Grand Tour, with the Australian stepping onto the podium and achieving a long held goal, but in 2021 he would perhaps rather have been somewhere else.
"It was one of those things where, when I was in Europe around the races it is pretty stressful, but then when I saw my friends back in Tassie lining up for this new event called the Devil's Cardigan, then and there I thought it would be kind of nice to do something like that," Porte told Cyclingnews. "Low stress and low key and, you know, something to enjoy.”
Jump forward two years, and that’s just what a now retired Porte is doing. On Saturday he will be lining up at the 106 kilometre Devil's Cardigan – a race with 2300m of elevation in north eastern Tasmania, just a stone’s throw from home, that is this year also hosting the AusCycling Gravel National Championships.
“You know, in the depths of winter now, yeah, it's going to be pretty cold, but I'm excited for it,” said Porte.
Devil's Cardigan starts in Derby, a mountain biking hub, and winds its way through a course that has just four short sections of bitumen road, comprising of 13% of the distance. The long expanse of gravel takes riders through temperate rainforest, waterfalls, low alpine shrubs and then opens up into wide stretches of farmland.
There are three key climbs on the route. First it is the early field splitter of Mutual Valley (8.3km at 4.2%) then, peaking at 45km, in there is Ralph Falls ª10.7km at 5%º and finally the un-named climb of hell (3.5km at 8.1%) which peaks at around 40km from the end of the race, but it is far from flat for the remaining run to the Branxholm finish line.
Will the climbs be enough to trigger that competitive spirit for a rider who just three years ago stood on the podium of the Tour de France?
“No, not at all, not at all,” Porte said with an answer that couldn’t have made it clearer that he is not planning on being one of the new wave of ex-professional road cyclists that are chasing gravel wins.
"You know, looking at the weather forecast I'll definitely be rugging up and I've got some good mates there who I didn't really get to ride with that much before, so it'd be nice to just go and do that.”
The one-time triathlete, and father of two young children, has embraced swimming and said he is riding just a couple of hundred kilometres a week maximum, with the gravel bike often a good option to explore the quieter, off the beaten track, roads around his Tasmanian home base. Porte also took on a gravel event in Victoria earlier this year, the Beechworth Granite Classic in April, and it is a discipline he is expected to continue on with.
“I mean, I still enjoy riding my bike but it does become a bit like your job, so it is nice doing something that still excites you on the bike.”
"It's something totally foreign to what I was doing for the last sort of 16 years of my life… it's just nice to do events where there's no stress, there's no pressure, you know, and it's going to be really enjoyable.”
Plus gravel isn't where it ends, with Porte also looking ahead to taking on the Cape to Cape mountain bike stage race in Western Australia this October.
