In constant rain: Laporte wins Gent-Wevelgem

Arm in arm with his team-mate Wout van Aert the Frenchman Christophe Laporte from Jumbo-Visma won the Belgian cycling classic Ghent-Wevelgem for the first time in the pouring rain.

Gent-Wevelgem 2023: Vanmarcke rides to third place

The world championship silver medallist won ahead of the Belgian breakaway rider van Aert, who had foregone a sprint finish after 261 kilometres in favour of his colleague from the Jumbo-Visma team. For Laporte, who won a stage at last year's Tour de France, this is his first victory in a major classic. Belgian Sep Vanmarcke took third place in the sprint of the first chasing group.

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Van Aert and Laporte had broken away from the first group on the second of three crossings of the Kemmelberg 53 kilometres before the finish of Gent-Wevelgem 2023 and continued to extend their lead. The Dutch Jumbo-Visma team once again proved to be the dominant team this year. Laporte secured the Black & Yellows' 19th win of the season.

Nils Politt crosses the finish line with the chasing group

The German champion achieved a decent placing Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished in 20th place as a member of the first chasing group. "It was super cold. Everyone is totally tired and empty," said the rider from Cologne, who is particularly fond of the spring classic. Paris-Roubaix wants to fight for victory in a fortnight' time. In addition Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) was the best German in eleventh place, John Degenkolb (Team DSM) one position behind him and Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) in 19th place was a strong performance from a German perspective. Degenkolb had secured the last of three German victories at Gent-Wevelgem in 2014.

There were repeated crashes on the slippery roads, and even prominent names were not spared. For example, the two former world champions Michal Kwiatkowski and Filippo Ganna from the Ineos Grenadiers Team finish the race early. Some riders like Sprintstar Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Rick Zabel (Israel-Premier Tech) had decided not to start at short notice.

Ghent-Wevelgem 2023 results

• 1st Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) 5:49:39

• 2nd Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) +0:00

• 3rd Sep Vanmarcke (Israel-Premier Tech) +1:56

• 4th Frederik Frison (Lotto-Dstny) +1:56

• 5th Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) +1:56

• 6th Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) +1:56

• 7th Alexis Renard (Cofidis) +2:04

• 8th Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) +2:04

• 9th Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) +2:04

• 10th Daniel McLay (Arkea-Samsic) +2:04

• 11th Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) +2:04

• 12th John Degenkolb (Team DSM) +2:04

• 13th Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) +2:04

• 14th Tim Merlier (Soudal - Quick Step) +2:04

• 15th Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) +2:04

• 16th Nathan van Hooydonck (Jumbo-Visma) +2:04

• 17th Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny) +2:04

• 18th Oliver Naesen (AG2R) +2:04

• 19th Nikias Arndt (Bahrain-Victorious) +2:04

• 20th Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) +2:04

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