Favorite? Big underdog? It doesn’t matter after all. This Sunday, the victory of a Frenchman in Paris-Roubaix would not be a huge surprise, and it is already an event in itself, in an event where the last French victory dates back to the last millennium, with Frédéric Guesdon in 1997. 29 years old, Christophe Laporte changed status this winter at the same time as team and country. Goodbye France and Cofidis, hello the Netherlands and Jumbo-Visma, with its constellation of Galacticos, first and foremost Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert.
“To be the best rider possible, you had to go to the best team, summarized at the beginning of the month in West France the 6th of the very muddy 2021 edition of the Hell of the North. I had this opportunity. I didn’t want to have any regrets at the end of my career. “We are very happy with him, greets Mathieu Heijboer, performance director of the Jumbo. We already knew he was very strong. But he still surprised us a bit. He was immediately one of the best classic riders. Each time he fought for victory or helped Wout. »
Impressive from his first outing at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, author of his first World Tour victory in the inaugural stage of Paris-Nice – supervised and dubbed by his “bosses” van Aert and Roglic – 2nd in the Grand Prix E3 ( behind van Aert) then from Ghent-Wevelgem, 9th in the Tour of Flanders… Laporte is a hit, even if he is far from coming out of nowhere, as Alain Deloeuil, his former mentor at Cofidis, reminds us.
“Best team in the world” with the “best rider in the world”
“We are not too surprised, slips the historic sports director of the northern formation, where the Varois spent eight seasons. Christophe has had constant progress. Many say that it is no longer the same runner. But you have to put things in context. With us, he still finished 6th in Paris-Roubaix, 4th in Ghent-Wevelgem [en 2018] or 11th in the Tour of Flanders [en 2021]. »
But leaving for the Netherlands, the tall Southerner (1.89 m) still won the change. “He has passed a milestone because he is playing in the best team in the world of classics with the best rider in the world, continues Deloeuil. When van Aert is there, he weighs in on the race with his quality teammates. In the classics, it’s a respected team like the Quick Step, so it’s much easier to run at the front of the peloton. »
Sports assistant at Cofidis, who remained close to Laporte, Christophe Hajaer continues: “With us, he had already done great performances. For me, it is in continuity. He is perhaps more rigorous in his profession. Evolve in a team that plays the win very regularly, it always motivates. We come back to the cliché, so common in football, of the Frenchman being a little too pepouze when he plays at home before taking out the big game outside his borders.
“Christophe is someone who shouldn’t be pushed too much at the start, develops Alain Deloeuil. He won his few races, it suited him very well. Suddenly, he said to himself: “I will perhaps try to see if I am at the limit or if I can still progress”. He went to Jumbo. At the start of the season, he did a three-week internship in Tenerife, at altitude. With us, it was the cross and the banner to make him leave for so long. But when you arrive in a team with a leader like Wout van Aert who says: “we’re leaving for three weeks”, I don’t think you’ll answer: “no, I’m not going”. »
Laporte therefore surveyed the heights of the Canaries in February, with his leader and his close guard with surnames that smell of the Flandrian classics: Tiesj Benoot, Mike Teunissen, Tosh Van der Sande and Nathan Van Hooydonck. After having built a fund and having perfected his English (Jumbo, magnanimous, does not require the use of Dutch), the effect was immediate once he returned to Europe.
And it’s not over, according to Mathieu Heijboer. “When he goes to do even more training courses, he will be able to develop his “engine” and train even more than what he was used to doing, explains the former Dutch rider. He learned about nutrition, during and after the race but also after training. And he can still lose pounds, maybe two. »
Passed “from Stade Rennais to Real Madrid”
This personalized training is of course one of the secrets of the Varois’ current success, as he himself admits. For Deloeuil, his former foal passed this winter “from Stade Rennais to Real Madrid”. “The budgets are different, the structures too, agrees the sports director of Cofidis. Where we put one or two people around a runner, they put five or six. »
And this new comfort serves more as a spur than a soporific. His successful debut at Jumbo gave Laporte legitimacy ahead of Paris-Roubaix. Of course, the return of Van Aert, who forfeited the Tour of Flanders and the Amstel Gold Race due to Covid, risks cutting into his prerogatives. But the management of the Dutch armada assures that its cador, beaten big in the 2021 edition won by Sonny Colbrelli, will above all be a luxury teammate for Teunissen, Van Hooydonck and the Frenchman. “We are counting on Christophe in the final, we will protect him”, assured Mathieu Heijboer before the formalization of Van Aert’s participation on Thursday.
Impeccable on the flat, at ease on the cobblestones and fast in the sprint, the southerner displays all the panoply of a candidate for success in the Queen of the Classics. “I saw him progress in Paris-Roubaix from year to year, notes Christophe Hajaer, who so often massaged his thighs after the races. The first years, it did not pass the 200 or 220 limits then it crossed a course. He comes from mountain biking and the trajectories are a strong point for him. He also knows how to place himself in the peloton very well. For me, he is a potential winner in the next few years. »
“I would be happy and frustrated at the same time if he wins”, admits Alain Deloeuil, whose formation is “orphaned” by Laporte before Sunday’s race. “But he deserves it. He’s no longer a local runner, but I really appreciate him. Laporte’s potential is unanimous among our interlocutors. Like the so random side of a race that makes it as mythical for observers as it is sometimes hopeless for its actors.