Christophe Laporte Scores Second Victory in 4 Days at Dwars door Vlaanderen
For the second time in four days, Christophe Laporte crossed the line first, winning this year’s edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen on a gray and windy day, typical of a Flandrian spring.
It was the 28th victory of his career.
The race saw a six-rider breakaway spend the earliest parts of the race well ahead of a spicy peloton, as the 183K course took on eight cobbled sectors and eleven climbs through the Flemish Ardennes. Much of the course is similar to what the peloton will face in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, the season’s second monument, though most of the sport’s biggest names sat today’s race out to stay fresh for Sunday.
After most of the cobbles and climbs were handled, the breakaway settled with just two riders—Alexander Kristoff of team Uno-X and Movistar’s Oier Lazkano Lopez—and eventually, a second chase group ahead of the peloton.
Kristof and Lazkano were caught by the ten-strong chase group as they reached the Herlegemstraat—the race’s final cobbled sector—with five kilometers remaining. At that point, the peloton was just over twenty-seconds behind.
One kilometer later, Laporte launched an attack so subtle, it almost felt as though the chase group didn’t notice until it was too late. And once they did, their indecision kept them from reigning in Laporte, who quickly opened an insurmountable gap.
Finally, with about three kilometers to go, Lazkano and American rider Nielsen Powless darted from the front of the chase group in a fruitless effort to reel Laporte—whose lead by then was thirteen seconds—back in.
“I took my chance and that was it,” Laporte said in a post-race interview. “I’m quite fresh and I’m taking advantage of it.”
Laszkano held the charging chase group off for second place, while Powless rounded out the podium, taking third for his Team EF Education-EasyPost.
“It’s tremendous to have won those Cobbled Classics but we need to do our best this weekend,” Laporte said. “We’re going to see if we can do it this weekend. We’ve got a really strong team here.”
With today’s win, Jumbo-Visma has won five of this season’s six Flemish races, missing out only on the Classic Brugge-De Panne, which was won by Alpecin-Deceunick’s Jasper Philipsen.
Asked about his chances for a victory at Sunday’s Tour of Flanders—which would mark a sweep of this section of Flemish Week for the French rider—Laporte pointed out that beating his teammate, Wout van Aert, along with Mathieu van der Poel, and Tadej Poga?ar would be a challenge before mentioning that he would spend his day helping van Aert as best he can.
Dwars door Vlaanderen Results - Men’s Top 10
Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma)
Oier Lazkano Lopez (Movistar Team)
Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost)
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck)
Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo)
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto–Dstny)
Davide Ballerini (Soudal–Quick-Step)
Andrea Pasqualon (Bahrain - Victorious)
Olivier Le Gac (Groupama–FDJ)
Nils Politt (Bora–Hansgrohe)
You Might Also Like
