[20.05 10:45] Team Saxo Bank’s Richie Porte has blown everyone away in this year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia and yesterday’s stage will probably be one for the books being one of the hardest and most unusual in the history of the race. The young Aussie was tired and happy before taking on today’s twelfth stage:

”Of course, I am extremely happy about taking the leader’s jersey and yesterday’s stage was more or less surreal. Both in terms of the harsh weather and the distance of the course but also because we were in that particular and rather bizarre situation where we were actually able to distance the overall favorites. Basically, I have to thank Chris (Anker Sørensen) and Laurent (Didier) for being there and working extremely hard for me. It’s my first Protour season and my first grand tour and I am grateful to be able to stand on the podium wearing the leader’s jersey halfway through the race. We have already reached our goals and now we will just take it day by day,” said Richie Porte before taking on stage 12.