Christophe Laporte on Visma's plan for Milan-San Remo without Wout van Aert: "Olav Kooij for the sprint and me for a hard race"

Team Visma - Lease a Bike team arrives for the first time in several years without being one of the favorite teams to win the Milano-Sanremo due to the absence of Wout van Aert. The theoretical leader of the Dutch squad Christophe Laporte talks about the team's chances in the race.

"I have prepared very well, everything is going well. Normally we face this race as one of the big favorites, this year it's not like that, which takes pressure off the team. We will try to get a good result. Olav Kooij and I will be protected, so we have two good cards, Olav for the sprint and me if the race breaks down. We hope to have a good race."

Speaking to CyclingPro.net, Laporte is not sure what will happen in a race he describes as "complicated" to predict. The team hopes for a sprint and a conservative race; both their main cards can climb relatively well within the classics riders and have shown good form recently.

"I don't expect a big sprint, it's complicated to predict what's going to happen, there are going to be attacks, but there are also many teams that want to get to the sprint, there are also very strong riders who are going to try to give a lot of hardness to the race, it's going to be difficult," he concluded.