After starting the season on fire, Richie Porte has won the Volta a Catalunya, National TT, Paris-Nice as well as stages in Paris-Nice, Volta ao Algarve and Tour Down Under. But he isn’t resting on his laurels, and wants to win more this season.

He spoke to Cycling Tips about his season, starting with his win in Catalunya at the weekend, where he didn’t believe after a breakaway gained three minutes on day one, that any GC favourite would win the race.

“It was a catastrophe to be honest. If you’d asked me on Monday [after stage 1] if I thought any of the GC favourites could have won I would have said no. Pierre Rolland and those guys [in the break] — top 10 in the Tour and fourth in the Giro; they’re not guys you want to give three minutes to.”

“That was the thing — we just didn’t get time checks. And then when we finally did we were told via our director that the time gap was going to be “maybe more than 12 minutes”. It was like: “What do you mean ‘maybe‘?!” They were looking on Twitter trying to get time checks — nobody had a clue. All’s well that ends well, isn’t it?”

He didn’t just win the race by consistency, he did it by constantly making the splits and by dropping all of his rivals bar stage winner Tejay van Garderen (who was 18 minutes down at the time) on the race’s only summit finish. He talked about the confodence he has gained from dropping men like Contador and Valverde.

“Obviously it’s a massive confidence boost. I’ve been dedicated for the last five or so months, getting my health back to where it needs to be but also working on weight and things like that, which is pretty crucial as a bike rider.”

“There’s nothing I’ve done that’s not sustainable and I’m in a good place mentally and everything’s quite balanced at the moment. It just helps to be so motivated and then get these results.”

“If my season was to finish now I’ve already had an incredible season but I want more. I want to hit the Giro and take these guys on on these longer climbs. It’s one thing to win Paris-Nice where everybody said it wasn’t a strong field … but to go to Catalunya and win the race on a parcours that didn’t suit me? It’s given me a bit more belief in my ability at the moment.”

The Giro is a real goal for Porte this year, especially with the long time trial stage that suits him. He thinks he can recreate his stage race form over one-week into a Grand Tour, where he hopes to remain healthy and limit losses on any bad day he has.

“Once you get through that initial part of a Grand Tour it settles down and it’s a bit more business as usual. Yeah it’s longer, but Paris-Nice and those races are probably the most stressful races of the year with the crosswinds and things like that. [Paris-Nice and Catalunya] are a bit of a training run going into a three-week race. I just look at it that if I can do it for seven or eight days, just do it over three weeks. The reality is you’re probably going to have a bad day over three weeks and it’s just [about] trying to stay healthy. That for me is the key; to manage those bad days and to not [lose] it all in one day.”

To show just how serious Sky are in backing Porte’s Giro bid, the team is putting together a strong squad for the Australian.

“Obviously the Tour’s always going to take priority. I think [we’ve got] a fair idea of who will do the Giro and who will do the Tour. We’re going to have a good team: David Lopez, who was brilliant the last week, and [Vasil] Kiryienka, who’s just brilliant full stop, then Sebastian Henao — guys like these. I think we’re going to have a pretty solid team. I think with our team somebody always steps up in the crucial moments.”

While many are talking up Porte to be favourite, he points out that he has never even finished in the top five of a Grand Tour, and for now a podium would be a great result for the 30 year old.

“A podium is massive, let’s not lose sight of that. For me it’s all about the podium and as high up that podium as it can be.”

He has opted to continue his Giro build up at the Giro del Trentino, the first time he has raced there, ahead of the Ardennes Classics, as he says Trentino will help him keep his fitness higher than the Ardennes can.

“The Ardennes is a lot of sitting around in hotels. I sort of felt like I lost fitness by doing those, so no I’m not doing them this year. And I probably won’t ever do them again — you don’t see [on TV] how stressful those races are. All day you have to be focused on it. You never say never, but for now I’d rather just focus on stage races.”

Finally, in a contract year, the Australian says he is confident he will remain with Team Sky, but nothing us guaranteed.

“I’m happy at Sky. I know what I’ve got. I think sometimes that’s the most important thing; knowing what you do have. There are other teams knocking on the door to my manager, who are prepared to give me the leadership for the Tour and things like that. That is something you can’t take lightly — I’m coming into my best years I think.”

“But to be honest I need to go to the Giro and prove myself there. I’m happy at Sky but obviously we’ll just have to see what happens.”