THE QUIET ACHIEVER
23.04.1979 - 03.03.2020
he first time I saw Nicolas Portal was when he was riding for Caisse d’Epargne in one Tour de France or another in the mid-2000s. It was a rest day at the Tour, and he was entertaining some friends in the lobby of his team hotel, where I’d gone for interview duties. He was all spiky hair and mid-20s confidence in a way that is quite specific to young French men, but I do remember thinking a little harshly at the time that perhaps him being French on a Spanish team gave him a better chance of Tour selection than if he’d been with his previous team, Ag2r. To me, he didn’t quite fit in with the climbers and grand tour specialists of
