"We have seen a really strong Wout today": Laporte takes third in Gent-Wevelgem but Visma still searching for that classics win

Jasper Philipsen proved to be the fastest in a breathless finale at In Flanders Fields - From Middelkerke to Wevelgem, sprinting to victory ahead of Tobias Lund Andresen and Christophe Laporte. While the podium finish was a decent outcome, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider made no attempt to hide that the team had wanted more.

The race looked promising when Van Aert and Van der Poel went clear together, but a large and well-organised chase group behind made sure the duo did not make it to the finish line alone. Laporte pointed the finger at a determined Red Bull-Bora contingent in the chase.

"Yeah, it's a good result but it is not what we were looking for this morning. We were looking for the win today, but yeah, it's a good result for the team. It was a good race," he said after the finish. "I didn't expect, actually, that we would come back on Wout and Mathieu, but the group behind was quite big. They were pulling maybe with six guys. So yeah, it is hard to stay in the front with six guys at the back pulling full gas. So it was not the best scenario for us: a bunch sprint with Mathieu. But in the end, I managed to get third, so it's a good result." he explained in a post-race interview.

That left Laporte facing a bunch sprint without teammate Matthew Brennan, which was never going to be the ideal outcome. "It was not the best scenario for us - a bunch sprint with Matthew. But in the end, I managed to get third, so it's a good result."

Laporte was one of the most active riders in the race, launching attacks from as far out as 100 kilometres to go, an unusually aggressive approach even by his standards. He had a simple explanation for it.

"After the first time up the Kemmelberg, there are always a lot of attacks and I was alone without Wout in the group. So it's hard to close the attacks, so I prefer to make them myself, then I don't have to close the gap. There were a lot of guys from Bora and Alpecin also following, so we had to be there to not chase behind." It was a tactical decision born out of necessity, and one that kept Visma in the race at a critical moment.

Despite still being without a classics win this spring, Laporte left the race in a positive frame of mind, largely thanks to what he saw from his teammate. "We have seen a really strong Wout today. It gives us a good feeling for the coming races," he said.

The team also has a potential question mark around Timo Kielich's fitness (he crashed and had to abandon) heading into the next classics, but Laporte remained hopeful. "We'll see if Timo hopefully is good and he can race the next races. But we have a good team. We are still looking for a win in the Classics, and hopefully it will come next week somewhere."