Laporte Discussion Thread - The Greatest?

[Red Rick]

Dylan van Baarle was just talking about the wrong Championships

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Now he is officially Europe's best bike rider.

Mehmet Sampiyonbisiklet is officially best bike rider, and he‘s from Europe.

 

[Red Rick]

Christophe Laporte gracously dragged his teammates along to join him on the podium. What a lovely gesture.

 

[Netserk]

Now we know who will be the team captain in the classics next year. An actual winner.

 

[Blanco]

Laporte indeed the greatest, at least in Jumbo classics squad.

 

[Tonton]

Bravo Christophe. He was a warrior. It took everything he had, what an effort! His best win so far, for me. Christophe Laporte was the greatest today, and the bravest.

 

[theyoungest]

Now we know who will be the team captain in the classics next year. An actual winner.

Meanwhile, over in Belgium: angry fans and commentators because they think he should have let Van Aert win. Really.

 

[tobydawq]

... is still yet to discover that Christophe Laporte is in fact a cyclist of greater quality than Peter Sagan, which is thoroughly proved by his dominating performance in beating Sagan by over 2 minutes on the Ventoux stage of last year's Tour de France.

Laporte has also bested Peter Sagan on many an occasion and is often willing to sacrifice his own chances for lesser racers, such as supporting Bouhanni to many wins out of his pure kindness, on top of that he took an excellent victory in the Tour of Vendee 2015 against a high calibre field, against which he dominated and proved that he is in actuality one of the greatest cyclists of our time.

What an incredible turn of events that Sagan will finish his career at the Tour de Vendée this weekend. His final push to equal the greatness of Laporte

 

[RedheadDane]

Meanwhile, over in Belgium: angry fans and commentators because they think he should have let Van Aert win. Really.

Do they not understand how national teams work?

 

[Wyndbrook]

Using Sagan as a reference for greatness is behind the times. Is this Laporte better than Van Avermaet, Valverde, Gilbert and Kwiatkowski?

Six years seems a long time in bike racing.

 

[Netserk]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1772224316014240084

View: https://twitter.com/vismaleaseabike/status/1772224316014240084

 

[Billie]

One of the DSs said friday he lost over 3kgs the week after San Remo and he hasn't been on the bike. Spring is over.

 

[Sciatic]

One of the DSs said friday he lost over 3kgs the week after San Remo and he hasn't been on the bike. Spring is over.

Damn

 

[tobydawq]

Really badly timed disease.

Maybe his generosity is rooted so deep within him that his body simply shut down when he was ready to smash the opposition in the classics.

 

[Brullnux]

One of the DSs said friday he lost over 3kgs the week after San Remo and he hasn't been on the bike. Spring is over.

3kg loss... seems ready for the Ardennes IMO

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Maybe his generosity is rooted so deep within him that his body simply shut down when he was ready to smash the opposition in the classics.

It's his way of paying back Van Aert for gifted wins. By not competing now, he is granting Van Aert a chance to win for himself.
If you look up magnanimous in a dictionary, it will have a picture of Laporte next to it.

 

[Netserk]

Laporte on the sidelines during Spring Classics: ‘I will cheer for…

Illness continues to keep Christophe Laporte on the sidelines. Recently, it became clear that the Frenchman will not return to action during the Spring…

www.teamvismaleaseabike.com

"Right before I was supposed to go on an altitude training camp at the end of January, I started feeling unwell. Tests showed that I have the cytomegalovirus. Since then, I’ve been recovering and have to take things day by day."

 

[kn0s]

Laporte on the sidelines during Spring Classics: ‘I will cheer for…

Illness continues to keep Christophe Laporte on the sidelines. Recently, it became clear that the Frenchman will not return to action during the Spring…

www.teamvismaleaseabike.com

"Right before I was supposed to go on an altitude training camp at the end of January, I started feeling unwell. Tests showed that I have the cytomegalovirus. Since then, I’ve been recovering and have to take things day by day."

Mono like symptoms apparently.

 

[AmRacer]

Mono like symptoms apparently.

Playing too much at the clinic?

 

[Cycling111]

I read on X that French journalists confirm he won't be in the Tour.

He won't be competing in 2025?

 

[Netserk]

He has been training for a month, so at the very least I think he will do a GT this year.

 

[SafeBet]

He's been very generous the past couple of years, letting second tier riders like Pog / VdP win Monuments and whatnot.
Hopefully he'll be a little more selfish later in the season.

 

[Netserk]

Niermann says that he won't ride the Tour. Progress is still very, very slow.

Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a bike) forfait pour le Tour de France

Le sprinteur français (32 ans), qui n'a pas encore couru en 2025, ne sera pas aligné par son équipe sur la Grande Boucle cet été. Toujours pas à 100 %, il doit déclarer forfait et ne sait pas quand il pourra revenir.

www.lequipe.fr

Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) Withdraws from the Tour de France

The French sprinter (32) — who hasn’t raced yet in 2025 — won’t be part of his team’s line-up for the Grande Boucle this summer. Still not at 100%, he’s been forced to withdraw and doesn’t know when he’ll be back.

The last images of Christophe Laporte in a race are in black and white. Face caked in mud, the Varois rider (32) crossed the line victorious at Paris-Tours on 6 October 2024, closing out a season marked by highs (Olympic bronze, a few top 10s) and lows (intestinal flu during the spring classics) with, as he put it, “a fine line to add to my palmarès, a classic that means a lot to me”, at the finish on Avenue de Grammont.

Since then? Misery. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider hasn’t pinned on a race number in 2025. And while his return seemed to be taking shape little by little — “Slowly but finally back on the bike”, he wrote in an Instagram story in mid-April — it’s been delayed again. Six weeks from the Tour de France (5–27 July), where he was expected to ride, he’s had to officially withdraw, as his team confirmed to us.

“Unfortunately, he’s been out for a while, he’s already missed the entire classics campaign, and he won’t be fit for the Tour,” said Grischa Niermann, one of his sports directors with the Dutch team, to L'Équipe. “We hope he’ll get back in shape and be able to train properly as soon as possible. But for now, he’s still not at 100%.” He’s not at the training camp in Sierra Nevada with the rest of the group preparing for the Tour, apart from the riders currently at the Giro who’ll be doing both races (Van Aert, S. Yates).

Back in January, during Visma’s media day, Christophe Laporte had hoped to leave behind a year “not disastrous, but with less success.” But he fell ill early in the year (cytomegalovirus, an infection causing fever and fatigue that can last for several months) and pulled out — first just from the Belgian opening weekend, then from the entire classics campaign, and now from the Tour.

And no one seems able to say when he’ll return. “He’s improving, really, really slowly,” his DS continued. “It’s getting better but it’s taking more time than we’d like — and more than he would too. But that’s life.” “What’s frustrating is that we can’t predict how long it’s going to take,” Laporte said at the end of March in a team statement. “Which makes it mentally tough.” And there’s no light at the end of the tunnel just yet.