Loes Adegeest

TDFF 2026: We don’t stop trying until we succeed

Safe to say I hoped for more. Feeling bad and searching for my legs during the first five stages was not how I imagined this tour. After the altitude camp in Andorra, I hoped it would give me that little extra bit to reach my best level ever, but sometimes the body’s reaction is hard to predict. It got hard sometimes to keep believing it could turn around.

But seeing the rest of the team racing so aggressive and committed from the first day on, worked as a big motivation to keep pushing through. So I kept hoping my legs would show up and every stage I went all in to try the best. A short time in the breakaway in stage 3, on familiar roads, luckily reminded me that racing can be fun.

The turnaround came in stage 6, after a hard fight from the start, I found the right moment to attack and spent 75km at the front. The crowds along the roads were great and I finally started to feel like myself again. Gave it another try in stage 8, 135km in a duo breakaway. Good thing I didn’t think about the distance when I started this mission impossible. When at one point we got 6 minutes though, I started to believe we had a chance of making it to the finish, but it wasn’t meant to be.

We’ve chased a stage win every day again, but didn’t get what we came for. Still we left our mark by our way of racing. Taking the price for most combative rider 3 out of 8 days (with 3 different riders), shows that we all raced our hearts out. That’s what I’ll remember most of this Tour.

I hope we’ve inspired other teams and riders as well to go all in for the win, take some risks and just try. Some more company in those long breaks would be very much appreciated 😉

None of this all would’ve been possible without the incredible support of the full team and everyone around me. Of course the staff working in the Tour, but also everyone working behind the scenes during the preparation period, from home, at the service course, etc. A big, big thank you 🫶🏻

We’ll keep trying.