“Next season, I want to be the best version of myself again” – Christophe Laporte ready to move on from nightmare 2025

For Christophe Laporte, 2026 is not about building on a good year. It is about escaping a bad one.

After a season derailed almost entirely by illness, missed races and months of uncertainty, the Frenchman is talking less about targets and more about recovery in every sense. “Next season, I want to be the best version of myself again,” Laporte said in Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s official press release looking ahead to 2026.

That line only really makes sense if you understand what 2025 took from him.

For the full picture of how Laporte’s reset fits into Visma’s wider 2026 strategy alongside Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert and the rest of the squad, see our main hub: Visma confirm full 2026 plans of Van Aert, Vingegaard, Jorgenson and more.

Laporte’s problems began before his year ever got going. Early in 2025, medical tests revealed he was suffering from cytomegalovirus, a condition that brings deep fatigue and an unpredictable recovery timeline. Training stopped. Racing stopped. Plans disappeared.

He missed almost the entire spring classics campaign, normally the heart of his season, and then missed the Tour de France as well, ending a run of ten consecutive appearances at his home race.

“After riding the Tour de France ten years in a row, suddenly having to watch the race from the couch was a very strange experience,” he said.

Unlike a broken bone, there was no clear schedule back. Recovery came in waves. Some weeks felt promising, others went backwards. It became as much a mental test as a physical one. “I didn’t want to constantly wonder whether I would ever be able to get back to my old level,” he admitted.

Laporte only returned to racing late in the summer, carefully building back towards form. There were no guarantees that the old Laporte would ever really reappear. “If you had told me this a few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said in October.

But slowly, the feeling came back. And then the results followed. He finished the season with a statement by winning the overall classification at the Tour of Holland, proving not just that he could race again, but that he could still win. “Personally, it was extremely important for me to return to a high level at the end of the season and head into the winter period with confidence,” he said.

By the time he went on holiday, something else had changed too. “Mentally, I’m fully recharged.”

For Laporte, the pain of missing the last two springs still lingers. “Over the past two years, I wasn’t fit and largely had to skip most of the spring season,” he said.

That is why 2026 begins with a very simple ambition. “My goal now is to be in perfect shape again and to fight for victories with the team.”

And not just anywhere. “And especially in the biggest classics: Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris Roubaix,” he said. “But actually, every spring classic is a major race in my mind. Wherever we line up, we have to be racing for the win.”

One race sits slightly above the rest. “I would love to win Paris-Roubaix one day. That’s my dream. Winning it as a French rider on home soil would be incredible.”

Even after everything he went through, Laporte’s relationship with the Tour de France has not changed. “As a French rider, the Tour de France is incredibly special, one of the most beautiful races of the year,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to racing there again.”

The goal is not individual. “As a team, we have a big goal: to win the Tour again with Jonas. I want to play my part in that.”

After watching from the sofa in 2025, simply being back in the race will already feel like a victory.

Laporte is not talking about revenge. Or redemption. Or rewriting history. He is talking about something much simpler. “Personally, I just want to enjoy cycling again and be able to race as I used to.”

The illness took a season from him. It took certainty. It took rhythm. It even took his place in races that had defined his career. Now he wants something back. “I feel like I’m still improving,” he said. “My level at the end of the season was already quite strong, and I’m holding on to that feeling during the training camps now.”

In 2026, Christophe Laporte is not trying to become someone new. He is trying to become himself again.