Porte recently completed the Criterium du Dauphine where he raced aggressively and only just missed out on a podium spot on the final stage. Van Garderen is currently racing the Tour de Suisse. The pair will co-lead BMC Racing at the Tour de France, which starts on July 2.
"Come the Tour we're only going to be better," Porte told Cyclingnews on the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphine.
Porte moved to BMC Racing at the start of the year after several years at Team Sky. BMC offered him the chance to go into the Tour as a protected rider, something Sky was reluctant to do with Chris Froome in their ranks. Porte admitted that it had taken time to adjust to his new surroundings but that he and his teammates were quickly developing a strong bond out on the road.
"It's not easy coming into a team where they've worked for leaders before and then expecting them to do anything that you're used to. I'm confident that we'll get it all right for the Tour, though."
The day after the Dauphine was completed Porte headed to altitude for his final training camp before the Tour de France.
"I'll do two weeks at altitude and we'll see the Alps stages. By the end of it, we'll have seen 11 out of the 21 stages for the Tour and that's quite a lot of recon. So far I've seen five. The race can be won in the Alps but it can be lost everywhere else."
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BMC will not announce their Tour de France line-up until after the Tour de Suisse but Porte added that he expected the lion's share of the team to come from their Dauphine squad, with van Garderen and possibly one or two more adding to their numbers.
"The team will be basically who is riding here and then one or two guys and Tejay who will come in. I'll do the main recon with him after he finishes at Suisse."
"We go in together and as co-leaders. For me, I don't know how much more percentage I can add from my Dauphine form. I do know that I come out of racing blocks better than I do training ones. Having not raced a lot I think that the Dauphine will have done me a world of good."
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
