Visma | Lease a Bike faces a serious setback heading into the Classics, but new names are already emerging

On Thursday evening, the provisional start list for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad underwent a remarkable change. At Visma | Lease a Bike, Christophe Laporte's name was removed. As sports director Arthur van Dongen confirmed in the Tour of the Algarve, the French rider suffers from a serious illness. According to Visma | Lease a Bike, it is currently unknown when Laporte will be fit to return to work.

Visma | Lease a Bike's outsider was not expected to participate in races like the Tour of the Algarve or Oman, but he should be at altitude now. On Tenerife, Simon Yates, Victor Campenaerts, Matteo Jorgenson, Per Strand Hagenes, Edoardo Affini, Attila Valter, and Axel Zingle are currently training for the goals to come.

Laporte had already left. The Frenchman became so ill - Visma | Lease a Bike could not say exactly what was wrong - that further preparation for competitions proved impossible. "Christophe has been seriously ill," the team said. Sports director Arthur van Dongen called it a significant loss.'

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Also no Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for Van Baarle

Besides Laporte, Dylan van Baarle's opening weekend is too soon. The Dutch rider broke his collarbone in a crash in the Tour Down Under's opening stage, although he could resume training reasonably quickly afterward. "The main goals are not in the Algarve, for example, but in about five weeks," the sports director says, already setting his sights on the two significant events: the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Wout van Aert must do without two of his best helpers/backups during the opening weekend. "I expect guys like Matteo Jorgenson and Per Strand Hagenes, who are currently on altitude training, to come prepared," says Van Dongen, who, like the rest of the team, believes in the young Norwegian for this spring. "And we have several guys to fit in, but we are confident that we can make our mark as a team. We are going to give it our best shot."

Victor Campenaerts – who was set to start his season with Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne – and Niklas Behrens will replace Laporte and Van Baarle in the opener of the Belgian classics season. Edoardo Affini and Loe van Belle will join the team for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Visma | Lease a Bike will defend its titles from the past three years with Van Aert, Van Baarle, and Jan Tratnik.

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It remains unclear to what extent Laporte's illness will hinder him this spring

For Laporte himself, his new setback is certainly a big blow. Last year, the French rider missed a large part of the spring classics with stomach flu and a back injury, which Soren Kragh Andersen (Lidl-Trek) is also struggling with. "I hardly rode any cobbled classics last year. Only the Omloop and Paris-Roubaix. But I was not well prepared for the Hell of the North. My first goal is, therefore, to stay 100 percent healthy this spring so that I can make optimal use of my abilities," he recently told Sporza.

According to the team, it is unclear to what extent Laporte's illness will disrupt his remaining spring plans. The French rider was also scheduled for Strade Bianche and all the Flemish classics, including Paris-Roubaix.

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