It's official: Christophe Laporte will not be participating in the Tour de France: "We cannot predict how long it will take"

Anyone searching for Laporte in 2025 came up empty-handed. The 2023 European champion was nowhere to be found, and at the end of March, an explanation finally emerged as to why that was the case. "Unfortunately, things are not going well. Sitting at home in front of the TV during my favorite races hurts. Things are heading in the right direction, but I am still tired and have to take it easy," he said in the spring. "Just before I was due to go on altitude training at the end of January, I didn't feel well. Tests showed that I have cytomegalovirus. Since then, I've been recovering and have to take it day by day," he said at the time.

A nasty virus, as the rest of the message revealed. Nasty because the duration of the infection is unclear. "The annoying thing is that you can't say how long it will take," he continued. "With a broken bone, you know roughly how long you'll need to be able to train again. With this virus, you can't say in advance, making it mentally difficult," Laporte said. In April, he shared an update on social media. "Slowly but surely back on the bike," the Frenchman posted then.

While the Giro d'Italia is in full swing, where Visma | Lease a Bike won on Thursday with Olav Kooij, sports director Grischa Niermann had an update on the former European champion. "Unfortunately, he has been out for a while, having already missed the entire classics campaign, and he will not be fit for the Tour," Niermann announced candidly. "We hope that he will be fit again as soon as possible and can resume training properly, but for now, he is not yet 100 percent."

"He is improving very slowly," continued the sports director, who sees signs of improvement in the experienced Frenchman. "Things are getting better, but it takes time. Much longer than we would like and longer than he would like, but that's life. The frustrating thing is that we can't predict how long it will take, which makes it mentally difficult," concluded Niermann.

This means that Laporte will not be participating in his eleventh (!) Tour this year. Last year, he ended a slightly less successful season in his home country with a victory in Paris-Tours, his only victory. In 2023, Laporte was still one of the big names at Jumbo-Visma when the rider recorded four WorldTour victories (including two classics) and also became European champion.