“Even being at home with the children was difficult” – Christophe Laporte lays bare the brutal reality behind his nightmare spell

Christophe Laporte does not look like a rider rebuilding. A stage win early in the season and a strong ride at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad point to someone already back at a high level, already embedded again in the rhythm of the Classics.

Which is exactly why the scale of what came before it has been so easy to underestimate.

Because the version of Laporte missing through much of last season was not simply out of form or short of race days. He was, at times, unable to function normally at all. “Even being at home with the children was difficult. I had headaches and was constantly tired. Nothing was enjoyable,” he tells Team Visma | Lease a Bike. “That was the hardest period of my career.”

That is not the language of a rider managing a setback. It is the reality of someone whose life, not just career, had been put on hold.

By the time Laporte disappeared from the races that once defined him, he had already established himself as one of the most complete riders in the peloton. His 2023 campaign, built on major Classics wins and a European title, had positioned him at the centre of Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s one-day structure. What followed was not a dip. It was a stop.

A cytomegalovirus infection removed any sense of continuity, replacing it with a daily uncertainty that offered no clear timeline and no guarantees of progression. “You wake up every morning expecting to feel better, and when it lasts that long, you start to think that moment might never come.”

The absence of improvement, rather than the illness itself, became the defining challenge. “The hardest part is that you expect improvement every day. When it doesn’t come, you start to lose confidence.”

Attempts to map out a return only reinforced that uncertainty. “We kept setting goals, hoping I might be able to come back by then. But we kept pushing them further back.”

In that context, the idea of racing quickly became irrelevant. “At a certain point, I just needed to feel good in my body again before I could even think about cycling.”

Seen purely through results, Laporte’s start to this season suggests a rider returning to his expected level. A win, a near-miss, a visible presence in the races that matter. But that reading skips a crucial detail.

There was no gradual build from late 2024 into early 2025. No steady progression. No controlled return to form. There was a break. “I couldn’t walk for more than 20 minutes without feeling very unwell. I was on the sofa all day,” he explains.

The gap between that reality and his current level is not a continuation. It is a rebuild. “I feel good now. Much better than last year. After such a long period, I had to prove to myself that I could still do it.”

That distinction matters for the Classics. Laporte is once again part of the conversation, once again a rider capable of shaping races rather than simply surviving them. But this is not the same trajectory that once pointed upwards in 2023. It is a new starting point, reached after a period that stripped everything back to basics. “It’s nice to be back. I missed it last year.”

The objective, however, remains unchanged. “I want to try to win a Classic. That is my goal, and also that of the team. I have the legs and I’m ready.”

What has changed is the context around it. Not the ambition of a rider building on success, but of one who has already come through a phase where even the idea of racing felt distant.

And that is what makes his presence at the front of races again feel less like a return and more like something rebuilt from the ground up.