Christophe Laporte: "What was said after Gent-Wevelgem? I'm not too concerned about it"

Winner of Gent-Wevelgem, Christophe Laporte was a last-minute addition for Dwars door Vlaanderen. The Frenchman is on great form, and he has also responded to the slight controversy that has developed after Sunday's race.

"I feel a little tired, but I also feel that the form is going up. There is no Wout, there is no Dylan, but we still have a good team and we are very motivated", Laporte said at the start of Gent-Wevelgem. "We were able to enjoy Sunday evening after Gent-Wevelgem, but you have to quickly refocus because there are a lot of races in a short time, and difficult races."

"I feel a little tired, but I also feel that the form is improving. I always thought it was a lot to do E3, Ghent-Wevelgem and Across Flanders, but I didn't do Paris-Nice, so I want to race and the team thought that was a good thing to do that," he explains the decision. With Dylan van Baarle struggling to recover from injury, Laporte's addition was logic and allows the Dutch team to have more expectations of winning the fifth out of five major cobbled classics so far.

On the controversy, where multiple figures within cycling criticized Jumbo-Visma's option to gift Laporte the win after he and Wout van Aert obbliterated the competition on Sunday, he's responded: "What was said after Ghent-Wevelgem? I'm not too concerned about it, it's a choice between us. There will always be people who will judge and give their opinion, but it concerns them."