Christophe Laporte has to settle for third place in the windy Elfstedenrace: "We took a gamble and ultimately lost"

You wouldn't find a better winner for the Friesland Elfstedenrace. There's not a cycling fan that wouldn't smile seeing Taco van der Hoorn take his first victory in well over two years, coming back from a long injury. In the final he was able to ride away from a small group that included Visma | Lease a Bike's leader Christophe Laporte, who was ultimately beaten by his breakaway companions.

While the winner of Wednesday's race was recruited from a five-man group that was able to go clear with less than 25 kilometers, the Dutch 1.1 race was already blown open on wind in first kilometers of the day and the battle for victory was quickly reduced to just 15 riders.

Visma | Lease a Bike were always in the center of action, placing three of their man into the front group. "We knew the wind would play a significant role," admitted sports director Maarten Wynants. When the lead of the race begun to split up, they managed to slide their best card into the winning move, but the non-stop attacks within the group eventually meant Laporte was condemned to merely watch Taco ride away towards a victory.

"We wanted to make it an aggressive race, and the guys certainly did that. We had five riders with us when the first echelon formed. Then three of our guys remained in the lead group. In the final stage, we were in an ideal situation with Christophe. Unfortunately, the other riders mainly focused on him. It was difficult for Christophe to control the race. As a team, we took a gamble and ultimately lost, but there’s no doubt we raced well."