"I didn't want to finish my career without trying this change" - How Christophe Laporte's Jumbo-Visma move turned his career upside down

Christophe Laporte was no unknown in the world of cycling, however his transfer to Jumbo-Visma in 2022 saw the best of the Frenchman, who despite having a majorly supportive role, has taken great amounts of success in his first year away from France.

"At the start of the year, I didn’t speak English and for sure I didn’t expect all this success but now I'm very happy I joined Jumbo-Visma," Laporte told Cyclingnews and Velonews. "I came to this team to be better. I made a lot more sacrifices, did more training camps away from home, improved my nutrition and lots more. It was a big step up but everything worked out well.”

An experienced sprinter and classics rider, the 30-year old turned pro in 2014 with Cofidis and had become one of it's leaders over the years. His versatility was apparent already in the team which turned World Tour under his leadership, however he wanted to take a risk and race outside of France: “I didn't want to finish my career without trying this change," he said. 

"I didn't do it because the French teams are bad. I think it's just good to see things from another point of view. By moving to a new, international team it takes you out of your comfort zone," Laporte continued. "You have to make sacrifices. It’s very important for me to give my best and to do that I need to have the best technical support. I think everybody knows that Jumbo-Visma is one of the best teams in the world, so for me it was the best choice.”

With it came a change of environment, training methods, racing schedule and focus, and perhaps even the motivation within the team as Jumbo-Visma frequently struck gold throughout the year. “I normally start racing early but this year I started later because we did a training camp in Tenerife for three weeks in February," he revealed.

“When you’re with your new teammates for three weeks at altitude and then at other moments, it helps you make friends and come together as a team. It was the same before the Tour de France. In the summer I was with my teammates more than I was with my family but in the end it was worth it," the Frenchman believes.

The spring classics were his main goal, where he and Wout van Aert famously rode away together for a comfortable victory at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic. Weeks before, Laporte won the opening stage of Paris-Nice and took the yellow jersey after he, van Aert and Primoz Roglic quite literally rode away from the rest of the peloton. Strength in numbers was evident, however Laporte himself was on a level above.

Whilst van Aert suffered from a mistimed Covid-19 infection, it gave Laporte some more freedom in the cobbles. He finished second at Gent-Wevelgem aswell, and 9th at the Tour des Flandres. His success run continued however. After virtually securing the team's victory at the Tour de France, alongside being van Aert's right-hand man, Laporte himself was given freedom to chase a win on the 19th day of racing, and took an impressive victory with a solo attack.

“It was an almost perfect Tour for the team and I’m proud to have been part of it. I think it’ll be almost impossible to do better and it’ll be really hard to do the same again. We have to enjoy it and then try again in 2023," he said. "There were a lot of good moments for me personally. Winning a stage in the Tour is a big thing for everyone and especially a French guy. Then we had the success as a team and it was also about the way we won."

“We’d planned the attack on the finale of the stage to Calais so that Wout could win. Then the stage to Col du Glandon, when Jonas won and took the yellow jersey, was a huge day. Then on Hautacam, he and Wout finished it off after we all worked hard. There were a lot of good moments for the team, which are now special memories," he said.

His individual success was notable, however it was still after supporting his leaders throughout three weeks. He showed surprise on beating Tadej Pogacar: “Before the Tour I thought it’d be very hard to beat him because he's so good but planning was a big part of the success."

“Of course we need a guy like Wout, Primož and Jonas to finish it off but they did it. We were very focused on each stage and planned things in detail, using the strength of the team to put riders in attacks on key stages so that we could then put Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates under pressure," the French rider concluded.

After the Tour his success streak only kept growing, as he won the Tour of Denmark and Binche-Chimay-Binche, aswell as finishing second at the World Championships, perhaps only not taking the rainbow jersey as Remco Evenepoel had escaped the peloton earlier on.