Christophe Laporte: " I am satisfied with ninth place. It turned out to be the maximum we could achieve"

After having lost their leader Wout van Aert just a few days before the race, Jumbo-Visma struggled to get the results they were hoping for at Tour des Flandres as crashes also hampered the team's ambitions.

Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot had shown great form and were ready to go into the race as co-leaders, targeting a podium or even more in the race, however things didn't go to plan: “I felt good today. It’s unfortunate that I crashed. I had to put in considerable effort to make up for the lost ground. A crash always comes at the wrong time, especially in this case," Laporte said after the finish.

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Laporte crashed with 82 kilometers to go and had many crash marks on the left side of his body. He returned to the peloton however and put on an impressive performance despite the circumstances: "The team worked hard to get me back in a good position. I’m in good shape, which is a good sign for the races to come. I am satisfied with ninth place. It turned out to be the maximum we could achieved," he added. Laporte went on to finish inside the Top10 after being in one of the first chasing groups to eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel.

Tiesj Benoot, who went on to finish 13th on the day, has added: “We wanted to attack on the Molenberg. I think that worked out well. Mick and Nathan got away, so we had two guys in front. It was a shame Christophe crashed. It cost the team a lot of energy to bring him back to a reasonable position. I felt good, but unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up when the others accelerated."

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