Jumbo-Visma reigns in Gent-Wevelgem: Laporte takes victory after duet experience with Van Aert

Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 4:53 PM

Christophe Laporte won the Gent-Wevelgem Prize. The Frenchman from Jumbo-Visma pulled away on the penultimate climb of the Kemmelberg with Wout van Aert, who handed the win to his teammate despite showing strength on the last Kemmelberg. Sep Vanmarcke finished third behind the unreachable duo.

Rain, rain and more rain. The weather was bad when the peloton left Ypres at 11am for more than 260 kilometres. Colin Joyce, Jess Van Hoek (Human Health), Louis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), Milan Freten (Flanders-Baloise), Luca van Boven (Bingwall WP) and Johan Jacobs (Movistar) didn’t pay attention and early in the race chose the rabbit route. And not long after, former winner Greg van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën), Gevgeny Fedorov (Astana Kazakhstan) and Gelly Wallis (Cofidis) made the jump.

The leading group of fourteen
It was Mike Teunissen (Intermarchy Circus and Wanty), Ginthe Biermans (Arcaia-Samsic), Elmar Reynders (Jaiko Alola), Aaron van Bock (Flanders-Baloise), Guillaume van Kersbulk (Bingwall WP) and Sandy Dujardin (Total Energies) It took longer, but they managed Also at the end of finding the connection. So we got a leading group of fourteen.

After that it was a long way to go to the preliminary final, which would start with Scherpenberg less than a hundred kilometers from the finish. However, enough has already happened at this point. There was some fan shaping for a while, but mainly there were the necessary malfunctions. Defending champions Beniam Jermay, Jonathan Milan (twice), Filippo Ganna and Michal Kwiatkowski, among others, hit the asphalt. Both INEOS Grenadiers riders have retired from racing. Alberto Betiol and Sam Bennett did not collide, but they also gave up early. On the other hand, Jasper Philipsen had financial problems.

Meanwhile, Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma), Bert van Lerburgh (Soudal Fast Step) and Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) continued to set the pace in the peloton, keeping the early breakaway within shooting range. At the foot of the Kemmelberg, the difference dropped to less than a minute and a half. There were no major differences on this same climb, but after the summit a group managed to break free.

Cheerleaders counterattack
This group of counter-attacks eventually consisted of nine runners, with Mads Pedersen being the last to jump. Fabio Jacobsen also tried, but came too late to join Pedersen, Soren Krag-Andersen (Alpecin Dekonink), Nathan van Hooydonk (Jumbo-Visma), Nathan van Hooydonk (Jumbo-Visma), Matej Mohorik (Bahrain Victorious), Ben Turner (INEOS Grenadiers) and Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Dstny), Erik Nordsæter Resell (Uno-X) and Anthony Turges (TotalEnergies).

The counter-attack including Pedersen and Laporte – Photo: Cor Vos

Pedersen and his teammates quickly overtook the peloton and stopped the early breakaway in the blink of an eye. Was this the hit? It looked so, but 55 kilometers from the finish it came together again. Racing can start again and in the second Kemmelberg that was what we saw, racing. Wout van Aert accelerated with teammate Christophe Laporte at the wheel.

Tandem Van Aert-Laporte
The two Jumbo-Visma riders got separated from the rest, though a group including Caleb Ewan, Jasper Philipsen and Matej Mohoric stayed close at first. However, they would fall back into the peloton, which soon faced a half-minute gap. The front duo kept accelerating and then sprinting for over a minute. In the peloton, the INEOS Grenadiers took the lead, but their work didn’t close the gap. on the contrary.

On the final climb of the Kemmelberg Van Aert pulled off again so Laporte had to give up at a few metres. At the top, however, the Belgian fell behind. He allowed the French back so that the two of them could drive to Wevelgem. And they did at full speed. The introduction grew to over two minutes long. At this point, the question was not whether one of them would win, but who would claim the victory.

Van Aert makes the difference in Kimmel’s car – Photo: Cor Voss

Van Art awards Laporte the victory
In the ever-light peloton – at last it could no longer really be called a peloton – they knew where they stood: they were fighting for third place. Matej Mohorik was also very active, but when he chased after Jonathan Narváez he slipped into a spin. Meanwhile, Van Aert and Laporte—busy in deliberation— proceeded to Wevelgem. On the line it turned out that Laporte could claim victory: Van Aert let him cross the line first.

Frederic Frison, Sepp Vanmarcke and Mikkel Bjerg pulled away behind the Jumbo-Visma outcast pair in the final stretch. In the last kilometer, Mads Pedersen joined them, but it was Vanmarcke who won the race. He was allowed on stage.