Christophe Laporte on the road back from rare illness: Visma | Lease a Bike rider explains what five months out did to his body

Back in March, Laporte announced he was suffering from cytomegalovirus, an infection most people get through without any symptoms. “Just before I was due to go on altitude camp at the end of January, I didn’t feel well. Tests showed I had cytomegalovirus,” he explained at the time. “With a broken bone, you know roughly how long you’ll need to recover before training again. With this virus, you can’t say that in advance, and that makes it mentally tough.”

In the end, it would take until August before Laporte could return. Looking back now, he recalls: “In my season preparation I came down with a fever, and after that I was just extremely tired. At first, I felt exhausted all day. The moment I did anything active, even just working in the garden, I got tired. At one point, it seemed to get better, but then I had another setback.”

“I could do practically nothing for five months, so you can imagine my form was gone,” sighs Christophe Laporte. “It was painful to watch the classics on TV. Those races mean the most to me and it was also the period where I was at my lowest with the virus. For weeks, I kept hoping for little signs of improvement, but they never really came. At least not in the way I had hoped or wanted.”

After the spring, Laporte realized that riding the Tour de France would also be out of reach. “That’s when we decided to put the focus on my health instead of trying to rush back. I knew I first had to get that good feeling back,” he explained.

“In the end, we built it back up very gradually,” Laporte continues. “One day I would ride, the next I wouldn’t, and so on. From two hours to three, small steps like that. As the process went on, I started to feel better again.”

“During the summer I started training again. Things are okay now, but still not where they need to be. It’s only since the start of July that I’ve really felt good again,” said Christophe Laporte, who made his return at the ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg after spending a few weeks in Tignes with his team.

The big question remains: is the virus still lingering in the background? “I feel good. I don’t really know the medical details, because I’m not a specialist in that area. I don’t know if it could flare up again, but what I do know is that my body has now built up enough antibodies. So it should know how to fight it off, at least, that’s what I hope.”

“I feel good now and I’m happy to be racing again with the team,” Laporte continued. “Hopefully I can pick up a bit more form and then use a good off-season to build toward next year. If I can still get a result this season, that would be a nice bonus. But after five months of inactivity, it’s a matter of waiting and seeing. Paris–Tours? Let’s hope so.”

This Sunday, Christophe Laporte, who also finished the Renewi Tour, will line up at the Bretagne Classic in western France. “It’s a very tough and long race, and it’s always special to ride in my home country. Normally, in good form, I’d be aiming for a result myself, but right now I’m just happy to focus on helping the team.”

“Last Sunday I was quite satisfied with what I was already able to do for the team, and with how my form felt,” said the Frenchman. “The Bretagne Classic will be a good race to build endurance and to see where I stand. I’m confident the form will come back. As a rider, you always hope for more, but cycling is hard, you need a lot of training to be at your best. I’m motivated to play a role in the finales again. The coming races are good opportunities to keep making progress.”