Laporte ends illness-marred season with Tour of Holland GC victory
The Tour of Holland wrapped up on Sunday with stage victory for Danny van Poppel, while Visma-Lease a Bike's Christophe Laporte wrapped up the overall.
This is the Frenchman's first win of 2025 after missing out on seven months of racing due to persistent cytomegalovirus, ruling him out of his favoured Spring Classics and a planned 11th appearance at the Tour de France. Having returned to competition at the ADAC Cyclassics in mid-August, Laporte came close to a comeback win at Binche-Chimay-Binche and Paris-Tours, then again on a couple of stages of the Tour of Holland, but he had to wait until after the final stage of the fledgling race to finally celebrate victory again.
"It's great to end the season with a victory. If you had told me this a few months ago, I wouldn't have believed it," Laporte said. "It has been a difficult season for me personally, but I am glad that I can end it this way."
Stage 5 results
- Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) 3:03:02
- Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty) "
- Alec Segaert (Lotto) "
- Cameron Rogers (Lidl-Trek) "
- Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) "
Final GC
- Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) 9:30:36
- Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) +0:37
- Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) +1:05
- Rayan Boulahoite (TotalEnergies) +1:25
- Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep) +1:26
