Porte finished 27th in the individual time trial at the Tokyo Olympics, over five minutes down on eventual winner Primož Roglič (Slovenia) capping an end to a personally disappointing Olympics campaign for the Tasmanian.
“Once Remco (Evenepoel, Belgium) came past me at the end of that first lap - I know he’s probably going to be one of the fastest – but it’s been a while since I’ve been caught like that in a time trial," said Porte. "That kind of hurt.”
“I picked a day to have a stinker. It’s probably the worst ride I’ve had in a time trial for, I can’t remember how long.”
Porte shrugged off a down Tour de France participation, and also dismissed the heat as a factor behind his performance, after being drafted in late in the process to fill Australia's second time trial spot at the Olympics.
“I’m in the same boat as everybody else," said Porte. "It’s been a long season up until now. But today the legs just let me down. I was motivated for the ride, but I just did not have it.”
The Launceston local ruled out competing in another Olympics, and said that he'll call time on his career at the end of the 2022 season.
“Yes, that’s it for me," said Porte. "I’ll be 37. It’s time to move on to other things in life.”
For the moment though, the focus on seeing what he acheive in his final season of competition, fresh off a year where he took a landmark win at the Criterium du Dauphine and finished on the podium of other prestigious one-week races, the Tour de Romandie and Volta a Catalunya.
“At this point in my career, whether or not I do another Grand Tour… I’m motivated for next year to go and clean up maybe a few more one week stage races before calling it a career," said Porte. “I had a talk to my coach Tim Kerrison, and there’s obviously races like Tirreno (Adriatico) and the Pais Basque (Vuelta al Pais Vasco) that I’ve not won. That’s motivating as well.
'But at the end of the day, I need a little bit of a rest after this.”
