Christophe Laporte over the moon with surprising Tour de France win: "Wout could have ridden for himself instead"

Christohe Laporte brought another win to Jumbo-Visma's palmarès for this Tour de France, a win that was seen as a surprise to most as Laporte had spent the Tour de France working towards the team's goals.

“It’s hard to realize but I’m super happy. The team trusted me today. Wout told me: ‘it’s for you today’. The last time he said that, it was at Paris-Nice," Laporte shared in the finish in Cahors. He was given the opportunity to go for the stage win today, as the Dutch team have almost secured all their goals and the finale was suiting.

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Wout van Aert hlped the Frenchman with the positioning inside the final 10 kilometers before resting up as he looks to win tomorrow's time-trial. Laporte was in the lead, and took perfect advantage of the situation. "We first reached our goal bring Jonas safely to the 3km to go mark. I sped up in a curve and I saw a bit of a gap behind me. I did the job to come across the leaders," he detailed.

Having bridged across to Fred Wright and Jasper Stuyven, he managed to get a leadout from the duo who were unaware of the Frenchman following closely. He sprinted with 500 meters to go, solo, and held the peloton who could not come close to fighting for the win.

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"It’s more than a reward, it’s huge! I was already super happy with this Tour de France even though I got no result for myself. Now the team gave me the opportunity to go for a stage win, it’s exceptional to win after I came twice second in the past. Wout could have ridden for himself instead. It’s important to get a French win. If it makes the crowd and my family happy, I’m happy too," Laporte concluded.

Despite having a largely supportive role, Laporte's move to Jumbo-Visma has finally seen him take the big wins he had been fighting for throughout the last few years.

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