"He's not 100% yet" Christophe Laporte removed from the Tour de France lineup of Visma

The problems of Christophe Laporte don't seem over just yet as the former European champion is yet to race in 2025. And that first start of 2025 is not on the horizon as the Visma | Lease a Bike rider has been removed from the selection for Tour de France.

"Slowly but finally back on the bike," he wrote in an Instagram story in mid-April. Since then, his comeback has been postponed again. Laporte has been on Visma's lineup for Tour de France since the start of the season but the desired improvement didn't come soon enough. Therefore, he was removed from the selection, the team informed L'Équipe.  

"Unfortunately, he's been out for a while, he's already missed the entire Classics campaign, and he won't be fit for the Tour," Grischa Niermann, one of his sports directors at the Dutch team, told L'Équipe.

"We hope he'll get back in shape and be able to train as quickly as possible. But, for the moment, he's not 100% yet." He is therefore not on the on-going training camp in Sierra Nevada, with the team preparing for the Tour.  

Regarding Laporte's current health status, there is not much positive Niermann could reveal. "He's really, really slowly improving," his DS continues. "It's getting better and better, but it's taking time, much longer than we'd like and he wants. But that's life."

"The frustrating thing is that we can't predict how long it will take," the rider said in a team statement at the end of March. "That makes things mentally difficult."