This spring, Christophe Laporte is aiming to put the nightmare of the past two spring Classics campaigns behind him and race again as a co-leader with Visma-Lease a Bike.
The Frenchman won Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2023 but suffered from illness during the spring of 2024, ruling him out of the biggest races, and then had much of his 2025 season ruined by a bout of Cytomegalovirus.
Last year, he only made his racing debut in August before recovering to a good standard in October, winning the Tour of Holland and finishing on the podium at Binche-Chimay-Binche and Paris-Tours.
This spring, he's aiming to get back to his best, he told Sporza.
"I feel good. I feel really good," he said. "I have no doubt that I will be back at the same level as three years ago. I showed then that I can win Classics, and I want to compete for victory again this spring."
33-year-old Laporte has put the difficulties of the past two seasons behind him now and should be among the leaders for Visma this spring. He'll line up alongside Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan to lead the Dutch team at this season's biggest cobbled Classics.
"Along with them, I'll be one of the protected riders for the classics," he said.
"Our goal is to reach the final with as many players as possible every time. This way, we have a better chance of winning a Classic as a team.
"I'll try to help Wout win. Although I still dream of Paris-Roubaix, because that race suits me best."
Laporte opened up about the illnesses that have plagued him in the past two spring campaigns, saying that a combination of fever and saddle pain "largely ruined" 2025.
He said that his condition last year was so serious that at times he even struggled to complete short walks.
"I got sick at the beginning of the season and thought it wasn't anything serious," he said of the illness, which was first noticed in January before he was set to join his team at an altitude training camp.
"Ultimately, it took almost a month before we actually knew it was cytomegalovirus. For the first six weeks, I even struggled with 10-minute walks.
"Every morning, I woke up hoping things would get better. But that only happened very slowly. It was the toughest period of my career. I'd never experienced such a long period without training and racing."
