Christophe Laporte opens up on difficult virus diagnosis: “It hurts to sit at home during my favourite races”
Cycling
Christophe Laporte has yet to make his 2025 season debut, and unfortunately, it doesn’t appear likely that will change any time soon. The 32-year-old Frenchman, one of the most dependable and versatile riders in the peloton, has been sidelined by illness since January, missing the races he typically builds his season around.
In a press release issued by his team, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Laporte provided an update on his condition. “It hurts to have to sit at home in front of the TV during my favourite races,” he admitted. “Things are going in the right direction, but I'm still tired and have to take it easy.”
Read also
Laporte revealed that just before departing for a planned altitude training camp at the end of January, he began to feel unwell. After medical testing, he was diagnosed with cytomegalovirus (CMV), a type of herpesvirus. “I didn’t feel well just before I was going to go on a high altitude training camp at the end of January. Tests showed that I had the cytomegalovirus,” Laporte explained.
Cytomegalovirus is a common virus in the herpes family. In most healthy adults, it presents no symptoms and may remain dormant for life. However, in certain cases (particularly when the immune system is under stress, or in athletes pushing their physical limits) the virus can become active and lead to prolonged fatigue, muscle aches, and a general feeling of unwellness.
For elite athletes, the consequences can be especially disruptive, with long-lasting effects on performance and recovery timelines.
That uncertainty is what makes this setback particularly challenging for Laporte. “I have to take it day by day. The annoying thing is that you can’t say how long it will take,” he said. “With a broken bone, you know approximately how long it will take to be able to train again. With this virus, you can’t say that in advance and that makes it mentally difficult.”
Laporte, who was European champion in 2023 and an integral part of Visma’s Classics core, has been forced to watch from the sidelines as his teammates take on the spring calendar without him.
For the second year in a row, illness has derailed his spring preparations, something he’s found particularly frustrating. “This is the second year in a row that I am sidelined during this period and I am very upset about it. It feels bizarre,” he said. “At the same time, I have also accepted the situation: the only thing I can do now is rest and wait until it gets better.”
Despite his disappointment, Laporte has remained supportive of his teammates as the team continues its push in the cobbled and hilly one-day races. “As much as it hurts me to have to watch the races on TV, I am really looking forward to seeing the team perform something great during the classics. I will be the biggest supporter of my teammates.”
While his presence is missed in races like Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix (events where Laporte typically excels) the Frenchman is keeping a long-term view of his recovery. “I also realize that the season is still long and that there are still many great races after the spring classics,” he added.
Laporte is no stranger to making successful comebacks. “Last year I also missed most of the spring, but then I won an Olympic medal and won Paris-Tours. I am holding on to that.”
So, bad news indeed for Laporte and Visma fans. It’s been a difficult start to 2025 for the team without Laporte, and they would have been hoping for much better news about his return. We wish him all the best in his recovery.
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- I hope Wout can come back. He has had 3 terrible crashes--not on par with Froome or Bernal, but at his level just a fraction of a percent is all that separates the grand champions of this new generation. Even if he is back all the way physically, those abrupt confrontations with pavement and mortality take a psychic toll, especially for a father of young kids.
Barney26-03-2025 - Everyone was so keen on free speech for a while, what happened ;-) But seriously, the problem is not so much that he gave his view as that someone follows it and spreads it, not totally unlike the schoolkids running US war games at present ;-)Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- We'll see what happens this year, hopefully he finds himself a little stronger.awp26-03-2025
- awp, the way and races he races, he probably doesn’t feel like he needs that many or specific race days before the Tour. His program isn’t very different from other years.Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- No, he just realises he’s not a one-day racer so why should he force himself?Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- Sacrificing E3 and G-W that were planned seems like he was hedging his options and only decided to do it after not winning MSR. Would he have planned to do all 5 and if so why hold back on announcing P-R if it wasn’t conditional? Guess people will get active with predictions now :-).Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- The MTB World title - there is no such thing. However, there are World titles in XCC, XCO, XCM, XCE, Enduro, Downhill......... He's after the World title in XCO, but could probably win the XCC title too, as his record is still better than anybody else, and he hasn't ridden an XCC World Cup since May 2021. Ten wins from twelve races says it all..... However, the XCO course is Crans-Montana is technical - he will surely need plenty of time back on the MTB, both training, and racing, otherwise it's going to be another doomed ambition.wipperman9526-03-2025
- Sweet. I wonder who's up on the next episode of Disgraced Ex-Doper Offers an Unsolicited Opinion?critguy26-03-2025
- well, paris-roubaix isn’t hilly AT ALL. it’s flat. the obstacle isn’t the hills it’s the cobbles, and what i’ve gathered over the years is that it’s almost impossible to imagine the beating that the body takes riding that course at race pace.OCexile26-03-2025
- Is Paris Roubaix hilly enough for Pogi to crack the other classics guys? Bring it on, it's going to be an exciting show!Ride197426-03-2025