Kritik und Lob » be. I am certainly not going to just

Throughout the Tour de France, Australian professional cyclist Richie Porte will be checking in. Here is his second entry, as told to ESPN contributor Rupert Guinness:Stage 2: Saint L? to CherbourgI could easily feel sorry for myself being almost two minutes down overall in the Tour de France after only two days due to the untimeliest of punctures. But I dont, and wont.Make no mistake, I am not glossing over the fact that my flat tyre?inside the final five kilometres of Sundays second stage from Saint L? to Cherbourg was the disaster that I said it was when I spoke to the media outside our team bus. It was a disaster, but not the end.Sure, its a bitter pill to swallow losing time like that. I was so well placed when it happened, on second wheel in the peloton behind the breakaway.I was not there to make a move. I just wanted to stay out of trouble ironically. Then my rear tyre flatted and just like that my Tour hopes were thrown into disarray. But you know what, as much of a disaster as I said it was, the fact is: a lot more people in the world are far worse off than I am.There was some good from it, too: at least my time loss was not because of poor form or being ill, or from crashing which in itself could have led to injuries and made my chances of a fight back harder. I was actually lucky not to have had someone ride into the back of me when I flatted at that speed downhill. It couldve been a lot worse than what many realise.I am not the only one on the BMC Racing Team who understands this. Everyone does, from Tejay van Garderen, with whom I came into this Tour as co-leader, to every rider and staff member.I had a great chat with Tejay after the stage in the bus on the way back to our hotel. He still sees us as being a good two-up front for the Tour, and I believe that we still can be. I am certainly not going to just give up hope. Sure, Ive lost time I really would not have wished for, but I have to take it as it is; and with so many stages ahead no way the Tour is over.There is still tomorrowI mean, look at poor Alberto Contador. There he is, two days in a row and he has crashed. We didnt even know he crashed again as we were near the front, but later when I saw him we had a glance at each other and he gave me a little shake of the head. He is a fighter, he wont give up. And I dont plan on it either; especially after all the work Ive put into this. It was also heartening to get the messages of support I got after the stage, not just from people following the Tour but also from a number of riders in the peloton racing here; and I have to say, I was not surprised that the first of them was my Aussie mate Michael Matthews from the Orica-BikeExchange team. We both live near each other in Monaco and while we are as different riders as we probably are people, we are good mates; and it was really nice for him to get in touch with me so soon after a hectic stage that he would have targeted [Matthews finished fifth on the stage won by Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) from Slovakia on an uphill sprint].Look, what happened sucked. But even now, when I look back on what happened, I cant really think of anything else that could have been done. It was a bad thing at a bad time.There was no way the team car could get to me ... it was stuck behind the riders already dropped. And I know some people were commenting about the neutral service taking a while, and it did take a bit of time; but no way was there any bad intentions on the mechanic there. He was doing his best in a really pressured situation. He is obviously pretty good at doing what he does. Were he not, no way would he have the position that he does.Similarly, I heard some people comment about not having teammates with me, but I did have Marcus Burghardt, then Ama?l Moinard and Damiano Caruso; but again, it was at such a bad time -- the race was going so fast so close to the finish -- there was little we could do.Then dont forget, we still had Tejay still up there [19th on the stage] and Greg Van Avermaet who was the rider we had down for the stage [Van Avermaet finished eighth on the stage].So how I see it all is that, OK the cards didnt fall in my favour today but there is still tomorrow and that means another opportunity. Ill be ready for it.Bob Cousy Celtics Jersey . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Red Auerbach Celtics Jersey . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. 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