The “Not so Serious Side”, of Cycling.

💛 Tour de France 2025: A Sign, A Smile, and a Happy Ending

It happened on the iconic slopes of the Col du Tourmalet, wind swirling, rain spitting, fans wrapped in flags and cardboard dreams. And then, one of those dreams… was snatched. Literally.

🎯 Just before the summit, Julian Alaphilippe, cold and drenched, reached out and grabbed a cardboard sign from a roadside fan. Not in anger, in survival. He tucked it under his jersey for warmth on the descent, battling freezing winds in true warrior style.

But what he didn’t know was what the sign said. The rider who the sign was for wouldn’t know either.

The fan was waiting for her future husband in the cold and wet with her cardboard sign, hand-drawn, held high, filled with hope that read, “Wout doesn’t know it yet, but we’re getting married!”

The woman holding the sign wasn’t cheering for Julian. She was waiting for Wout van Aert, her cycling hero (and maybe future husband 😉). When Alaphilippe took it, you could see the heartbreak in her face. A Tour dream dashed in an instant.

But cycling — ah, cycling always finds a way to deliver magic.

🟡 The next day, she was tracked down and invited into the paddock. Not as a background face. As a guest of honour.

There, waiting with a smile and a handshake, stood Julian Alaphilippe, offering an apology and beside him, Wout van Aert, grinning and playing along with the “proposal.” The sign may have torn, but spirits weren’t.