In a contract year and with a second child on the way, Richie Porte has much to contemplate personally and professionally as he deals with an interrupted season and a global coronavirus outbreak.

Porte (Trek-Segafredo) has avoided the pay cuts that some rival teams have been forced to implement, and stakeholders are working to save this year's World Tour race in any way they can.

"It's not nice to see or read that other teams have to do that. It's going to affect everyone. There are a lot of people who have lost their jobs and their livelihoods in normal life.

Porte, an Australian, has locked down life in Monaco, and although he has seen several athletes logging mileage outdoors, he has chosen to stay indoors, doing one-hour sessions on his home trainer and trying to build a routine with his pregnant wife Gemma and son. [Monaco is so small anyway. Monaco is so small anyway. Honestly, I just want to sit on the trainer." [When you have a two-year-old at home, well, he's almost two years old.

"When I was allowed to go out of the house for an hour a day or something, to go buy groceries or something, I never thought of the supermarket as an escape." [Trek-Segafredo boss Luca Guercilena said he had his temperature checked at the Singapore airport on his way to Australia for the World Tour opener in January.

The UAE Tour was shut down a month later after an infected rider was identified at the race and cancelled with two stages remaining. Around the same time, Porte competed in the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var in France, finishing third overall.

For Porte, Paris-Nice was a stepping stone to the Volta a Catalunya, which was "strange". By that time, in March, COVID-19 had become a global concern, not something you read about in the world pages of newspapers, and external pressure was mounting for the race to be cancelled.

"Paris-Nice was a normal race when the race was on. When I had a chance to talk a little with some of the other racers, there was a lot of discussion about the coronavirus and whether or not we should be there. But more than that, the discussions took place at night, at dinner, and there were a lot of messages flying between the racers, the other teams, and our own team about what could happen," Porte said.

"A lot of the racers didn't think the race would make it to Nice. But obviously the last stage was cancelled. It was a strange situation."

"It was a race that Max Schachmann of Beulah-Hansgrohe deserved to win.

Porte's three-month campaign before the cycling season interruption may seem irrelevant in the context of a global pandemic, but it could equally affect his future. [35]

The 35-year-old Porte hopes to continue riding for some time yet, perhaps in a different position in the Grand Tours, but with no races in the immediate future and only rumors of the Tour de France in August.

"Lucky for me, I won a race this year and I want to run a couple more years. Next year, I guess my goal is to ride for someone in the Grand Tour and run a week-long stage race," Porte said.

"When I was back in Tassie (Tasmania), I had a good routine going into the season - I was training well - and I was doing well.

Asked if he was doing any preparation for this year's race or looking ahead to the 2021 season, Porte said he did not want to do the "mental mileage" of thinking about either.

"I think 2020 is going to be a special year, and I think 2021 will be too. It's going to be a pretty unique two years," he said. [For now,] "I think the only thing I can do is try to stay with my trainer as long as I can and try to keep in whatever condition I'm in. [It will be bliss to be able to go out and train.