Laporte: “I almost didn't hope for this victory”

October 6 th 2024 - 18:02

Christophe Laporte (Team Visma | Lease a Bike): "I'm very happy, I almost didn't hope for this victory anymore. I haven't won since the European Championships last year. I didn't manage to win in the European champion's jersey unfortunately, it wasn't an easy year. I have the small satisfaction of the Olympic Games [3rd], the big satisfaction I want to say. I hadn't won, the feelings were there but for the motivation, it was more difficult with this difficult season. Today I was motivated. These are conditions that I like, too, the gravel paths, the mud. I wanted to finish the season as well as possible and that's the case. [Mads Pedersen] He really attacked far from the finish. It's always a bit like that at Paris-Tours, it gets a bit crazy in the first sectors but it doesn't break down that early so I stayed back a bit. Then I came back, I didn't want to let Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek control the race like that so I attacked. There was a Lidl-Trek rider with me, I made a big effort to get back to Edo [Edoardo Affini, his teammate] and Pedersen. Then we lost Edo then Pedersen, who had made a big effort. [Mathias] Vacek was with me, he was very strong. In the last kilometre, I had to play a bit. I turned around, I saw a big gap. I've already been caught out in a finale like that at Ghent-Wevelgem, there were three of us and I had waited to launch. The guy who had launched, [Biniam] Girmay, had won. I wanted to launch first today and that's what I did.”

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