Marijn de Vries stirs the pot on Gent-Wevelgem: "How proud will Laporte be of a victory where he knows he was not the strongest?"

After emerging victorious at Gent Wevelgem alongside his teammate and good friend Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte had the ride of a lifetime. According to Marijn de Vries however the win may not taste as sweet as seems.

"He has already won it once, but what strikes me most is that he wants to say that he doesn't really care about criticism. But by handing the victory here to Laporte, he shows once again that he really cares what is said about him," de Vries says of Wout van Aert to Sporza. "I think: he has shown that he was the strongest, so just win this race. How proud will Laporte be of a victory where he knows very clearly that he was not the strongest?"

Whether he was gifted the biggest win of his life or not, winning Gent-Wevelgem will forever remain on the palmares of Laporte, a major accolade for the Frenchman.

According to Sven Nys, the whole Jumbo-Visma team will be out to return the favour as it were to van Aert at the soonest possible opportunity. "He is really a team player, he has already shown that in the Tour de France. Those men from Jumbo-Visma are going to ride the seam out of their pants in the Tour of Flanders to put him where he should be," says Nys. “What was said on Friday after the race is even better today. 'I just don't need anything'. He wanted to make a point of it."