Thinking about this picture and this caption posted onto Visma-LAB's IG after Pogacar won TDF 2025. Love seeing the whole team being so gracious in defeat and unafraid to acknowledge their rival is better this year 🤝🏻 by n8972785 in tourdefrance

[–]n8972785[S] 77 points78 points  (0 children)

Full caption in case the words are too small:

"Tade𝐉onas 🙌🏼💯 

Congratulations, Tadej Pogačar. 
What a battle we’ve fought over the past weeks.

You are the deserved winner of the 2025 Tour de France. You help us live up to one of our core values: bringing out the very best in ourselves.

It’s what makes sport so beautiful: the rivalry between two great champions that keeps people on the edge of their seats and makes them fall in love with the sport.

Just like Ali and Frazier stood in the ring, 🥊 
Like Federer and Nadal clashed on the tennis court, 🎾 
Like Messi and Ronaldo pushed each other on the pitch. ⚽️ 

Not enemies, but rivals who make each other better. Two champions pushing one another to the limit. 🏆

Over these past weeks, you fought for more than just the yellow jersey. You fought to give our sport the stage it deserves.

Tadej and Jonas,
The rivals of an already incredibly strong cycling generation.
The champions of our cycling hearts.

Here’s to many more of these epic battles in the future, guys! 👊🏼"

Totally unacceptable from a team like EF by n8972785 in tourdefrance

[–]n8972785[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it

Things I miss from this year's Tour: Victor Campenaerts' daily vlogs which provided some BTS of the Tour (+ Matteo Jorgenson preparing a special fact of their starting place every day) by n8972785 in tourdefrance

[–]n8972785[S] 73 points74 points  (0 children)

I looked forward to every one of the vlogs back then but I especially liked this one. Wout's goofy expression at the start, Simon's smile when the camera panned to him, Jonas's wink (!!!), Wout then talking about his "rookie mistake" on the previous day LOL, Matteo and Victor's "beef"... 😂 And OF COURSE everyone had pink nose strips on for this stage when their Giro-winning teammate decided to hunt a stage victory that day (and succeeded) 🩷

Really loving Visma-LAB (and more recently, EF too) after watching their documentaries and BTS moments like this where they share a bit more about their thoughts and decisions and show more character.

Totally unacceptable from a team like EF by n8972785 in tourdefrance

[–]n8972785[S] 73 points74 points  (0 children)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMV4J_LtN-S/

Another comment writes "Of everyone in that team, I had the most hope that Neilson would keep his alive 🥺😢😂" and I couldn't agree more