Throughout the Tour de France, Australian professional cyclist Richie Porte will be checking in. Here is his latest entry, as told to ESPN contributor Rupert Guinness:Stage 20 - Megève to Morzine - 146.5 km (91 miles)When I stood at the toilet peeing blood on the first rest day of the Tour de France in Andorra almost two weeks ago, I feared that my race was over. Forget the frustration of my stage two 1:45 time loss from a tyre puncture.As I quickly found out, I had a urinary tract infection that required me to go through two lots of antibiotics to fully recover from it. The team has been great about it. Besides treating me for the condition, the team still remained one hundred supportive of my chance and backed me accordingly to the finish.This Tour has not been an easy run. Nor has it for anyone who raced it; even though some who followed it from outside of the peloton may say it was not the most exciting Tour. But discovering my health problem after I peed blood in Andorra on July 11 really brought it home to me what impact racing an event as hard as the Tour can have on your health.For obvious reasons I did not talk about my health issue when it arose. I am glad I did not. This Tour has really taught me so much about how to handle crisis moments, whether it be due to an overnight illness or in-race misfortune such as a crash or clash with spectators. But I also rallied and came on strong towards the end and found myself in a position to fight for the podium.I will eventually miss out by two places on Sunday when the Tour finishes stage 21 from Chantilly to the Champs èlysèes in Paris, but to still finish fifth overall is great. What gets me is the feeling that I have thrown time away.Crashes knock you around a bit and can make life in the race uncomfortable, but losing time senselessly is disappointing. Still, I felt I was one of the stronger riders, and that serves as extra motivation for next year.Sure, I wish it wasnt raining as it was the last two days in the Tour, but everyone faced it. I stuck at it and Im glad for that. When we got to the bottom of the last climb of stage 20 on Saturday, the Col de Joux Plane, everyone was in the hurt locker.Maybe, if it had of been dry, we wouldve seen more aggressive racing between the contenders. We came down from the Joux Plane summit to Morzine safely, but on the limit. It was so slippery. I wouldnt say I was scared, but it was in the back of your mind that things could easily go wrong.I am honoured to be riding for BMC as I am. The team brought me in as a leader and this shows that without the bad luck I would be [here and] capable of really fighting for it. That is probably more important to me actually mentally for next year ... to know I can do it.In many ways, the Tour has been quieter too. I did not become targeted to the sort things that Ive experienced before. Sure I had my stage two flat, and the crash with Froome and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) into the motor bike on Mont Ventoux late on stage 12.And I had a hat thrown at me in the stage 17 time-trial by someone and a couple of guys abuse me. But generally this year the atmosphere by the side of the road has been a lot better. There was not the intensity and volatile nature of the crowds I experienced before.There has been no shortage of motivation to push so hard so late in the Tour. That also stems from being picked for Australia to race in the Olympics time trial and road race events. The Olympics are a big carrot.Normally tomorrow I would go to a big party. But with the Games on, Ill go home to Monaco on Monday for four days, recover, then race the Clásica San Sebastian in Spain on Saturday before bottling my form to race in Rio.First things first ... 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