Laporte sixth at GP de Québec
Christophe Laporte has finished sixth in the GP de Québec. Sam Oomen and Tiesj Benoot cleverly positioned the Frenchman of Team Jumbo-Visma for the final sprint, but he lacked the power to finish it off. Arnaud De Lie won the first of two races in Canada.
A handful of riders attacked on the penultimate lap on the bumpy Côte de Glacis, after which the control was lost. Team Jumbo-Visma followed the pace steadily and relied on the sprint. Defending champion Benoît Cosnefroy seemed to put a spanner in the works with an attack on the final lap, but he was caught. Oomen and Benoot then brought Laporte to the front just in time. The 30-year-old winner of Ghent-Wevelgem and Dwars voor Vlaanderen rode a fierce sprint but had to settle for sixth place.
"Of course, you always want to win, but we rode a strong race."
"Christophe was feeling good, so we planned to sprint with him”, sports director Frans Maassen said. "The team rode a good race, and we intended to sprint with him. This race is usually a sprint of the dying swans. We started the lead-out a bit too energetically, which took Christophe's breath away. He seemed good enough for a podium place. Of course, you always want to win, but we rode a strong race. We can be happy with that.”