As the Tour de France approaches, Christophe Laporte is in the form of his life by winning, yellow jersey on his back, his second stage in three days in the Critérium du Dauphiné on Tuesday. On the eve of a decisive time trial for the general classification, the Frenchman from the Jumbo-Visma team won the sprint at Coteau (Loire) where he beat two pure specialists, the Irishman Sam Bennett and Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen.
“She is a little unexpected that one”, he reacted. “I always said I was fast, but not fast enough to beat those riders. Things made it smile to me today. Groenewegen was a little blocked on the right, Bennett a little at the end of the race, it allowed me to pass on the left, it’s nice”.
It is the third French victory in three stages on this 75th edition of the Dauphiné after that of Julian Alaphilippe the day before. In the general classification, Laporte, who pocketed three seconds in the intermediate sprint, is now 11 seconds ahead of Alaphilippe, before a time of 31.1 km between Cours and Belmont-de-la-Loire which should reshuffle the cards in the general .
“I don’t think I’ll keep the yellow jersey tomorrow, I like short lap times, but over 30 kilometers it’s going to be complicated,” said Laporte. But who knows? At 30, the discreet Varois confirmed on Tuesday how much he has taken on a new dimension since his arrival in the hyper-professional Jumbo-Visma team.
Last season, he had already made an impression by being the only Frenchman to win the Tour de France, before becoming vice-world champion in Australia. This year, he followed up with victories in two great classics, Ghent-Wevelgem and Through Flanders, before splashing the Dauphiné with all his class.
