Richie Porte is preparing himself to lead Team Sky in the Giro d'Italia and has finalized the race programme that will bring him to the start line in Belfast in peak condition. He will defend his Paris-Nice title in March but will mostly race in Italy as he prepares for his grand tour bid.

Ever since he finished 7th in his first Giro d'Italia in 2010, Richie Porte has proved that he has the talent to become of the best stage race riders in the world but he had to wait until 2013 before finally revealing the true extent of his potential. In one of cycling's premier stage races, the Paris-Nice, he was simply in a class of his own and won the two key stages on his way to the overall win.

He finished 2nd in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco behind Nairo Quintana in the only other stage race where he rode as a team leader. For the remainder of the season, he played the role of loyal domestique to his close friend Chris Froome.

However, it is testament to his class that he finished 2nd behind his race-winning teammate in both the Criterium International and the Criterium du Dauphiné and added another top 10 result in the Tour de Romandie. Had it not been for a dramatic stage 9 in the Pyrenees, he may even have joined Froome on the Tour de France podium in Paris.

Next year he will get his big chance to lead the world's best team in a major stage race as he will be the designated captain in the Giro d'Italia. After finishing 7th in his only opportunity to ride for the GC in a grand tour three years ago, he is convinced that he can win the race.

He may have ridden the Giro twice in the past but for the past two seasons, he has barely raced in Italy. To be well-prepared for his Giro bid, he will race a lot in the country in the spring.

As has already been revealed, he will kick off his season in the Tour Down Under on home soil where he has targeted the overall win. Back in Europe, he will do the Vuelta a Andalusia to prepare for his title defence in the Paris-Nice but from then, he will focus on Italian races. The Coppi e Bartali and the traditional warm-up event, the Giro del Trentino, are scheduled to be his final two races before he lines up at the Giro start line in Belfast.

"It's a mix. I'm little nervous but at the same time excited," he told Cycling Weekly. "Every ride is preparation for this big opportunity to lead Sky in Grand Tour. The Giro is important. I know how important it is because I raced my amateur years in Italy. I'm ready to take the opportunity with both hands."

Porte knows that racing in Italy is vastly different from the Tour de France and so it is no coincidence that he will ride a lot in the country.

"It's hard. It's unpredictable," he said. "It didn't go like Bradley [Wiggins] planned this year. Obviously he won the Tour; he can probably win the Giro too but the races are totally different. We saw that the way Vincenzo Nibali and team Astana raced it, it was a lot less controlled than the Tour was last year. That's thing with the Italian teams, even if they are not in the overall classification they will light it up for a stage win, which is a lot different than the Tour where it's often up to the sprinter and classification teams to control the race."

After the Giro, Porte plans to go back to the Tour to support Froome when the Brit tries to repeat his 2013 triumph in La Grande Boucle. However, he frankly admits that the Giro is the most important race for him and is convinced that Froome will be better supported than he was in 2013. He lists Mikel Nieve, Vasil Kiryienka, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Sergio Henao and Pete Kennaugh as riders that will be able to provide Froome with strong support in the mountains.

Porte has now returned to Australia after participating in the Sky training camp in Mallorca earlier this month.