Richie Porte on losing his brother Tom

Kaylee Fretz (0:00)

Before we start, a warning. This episode is about suicide and about one family's experience of losing someone to it. If that's not something you can sit with today, skip this one. We'll be here with a regular episode later this week. I'm Kaylee Fretz. Richie Porte needs very little introduction around here. Tasmanian, third on the podium of the 2020 Tour de France, winner of the Dauphiné, King of Walonga Hill, and for most of two decades, one of the best stage racers Australia has ever produced. This conversation isn't about any of that.

In October 2025, Richie's youngest brother Tom died by suicide. He was 37, a builder in Tasmania, a husband and a father of three. He was also, in Richie's words, his best mate. The two of them worked side by side on building sites for two and a half years after Richie retired from cycling.

Escape's Wade Wallace, who also hosts our Overnight Success series, sat down with Richie a year on, almost to the day, to speak about how he's doing, what he's learned about suicide, and the message he has for others who might be struggling.

We will of course be back with a regular Spin Cycle episode in a couple days. Until then, here's Wade and Richie.

Wade Wallace (1:22)

Thanks, Kaylee.

I want to say something about why this episode exists, because it isn't a story we went looking for.

For nearly 15 years, Richie Porte and I have had a relationship that started out with simple interviews and crossing paths with him at events when he was a rider on the rise. And now has become one where I genuinely consider him a friend. It's an unlikely friendship, and I don't have many others like it. A few months after his brother Tom died by suicide, Richie messaged me to say that he wanted us to find a way to pay tribute to Tom and to the memories he left. I gave him a couple gentle nudges recently, and Richie is the one who picked this moment. Two days after the first anniversary of Tom's death.

I'll be honest, I was dreading this interview. There's a version of journalism that treats a death like this as material, and I didn't want to make it that. What I wanted was for Tom to exist in this as a person, rather than as an ending. Like many others of you who may be listening, I've lost a number of friends to suicide over the years. Far too many. For most of that time, it just confused me. I couldn't make it line up with the people who I knew. Through many years, my understanding has changed what I know about it. It's an illness. It's not a choice. And knowing that hasn't made it any less confusing, but it has made one thing clear to me. It is preventable.

That's why we're doing this. If you're in a place Tom was, I want you to hear this. The way you feel right now is not the way you'll always feel. Even if that's impossible to believe today. The people who love you want you here. There is help and there are people who care deeply, even though that might be hard to see sometimes. And if talking about it openly makes it a fraction less shameful to seek help or to talk about it, if you're struggling when someone asks how you're doing, then this difficult chat for both Richie and I will have been worth it.

So I don't know if you remember, it was around 10 months ago when I got a message from you and you just read an article we wrote on ex-pro American cyclist Ben King.

Richie Porte (4:00)

Yeah.

Wade Wallace (4:00)

And the sad passing of his baby daughter Olivia. And you said to me something to the effect of like, I hope one day we can do something like this on my memory of Tom.

Why do you think it's important we have this conversation and what kind of resonated with you to make you think that one day you'd like to have this conversation?

Richie Porte (4:25)

Yeah. I mean, I think it's also, it's part of that thing is, you know, I remember racing with Ben, one of the most lovely guys in the peloton. I remember that Vuelta that he absolutely ripped up. And, you know, it's like you almost see some of these riders as objects, don't you? But then to see there is a person behind that.

You know, for me, I lost my brother. But to lose your child, as Ben did, and then to be able to go on with life. And, you know, I think it's... Humans are a pretty incredibly strong species, aren't we? And to see, you know, I suppose it's like when I lost my brother to suicide, it was, you know, you think that, you know, your world's sort of stopped and, you know, you feel so sorry for yourself and for your family. But, I mean, there's so many people, everybody's got something going on in their life, don't you? And, you know, I just think it's for myself, who had such a privileged life and upbringing, and you just don't think something like this is going to ever happen to you. And then when it does, it's, you know, it's unfortunate. Then you find yourself as a part of a community, and there's so many people who have been in this boat. But, you know, I guess the end goal for someone like Ben or myself is to, you know, you got to crack on, you got to live for the living and keep going.