{"id":199082,"date":"2025-10-14T09:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199082\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:31:08","slug":"thank-you-so-much-for-these-15-years-rafal-majka-shares-emotional-message-as-selfless-career-ends-with-one-last-pogacar-partnership-at-il-lombardia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199082\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThank you so much for these 15 years\u201d \u2013 Rafal Majka shares emotional message as selfless career ends with one last Pogacar partnership at Il Lombardia"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nA farewell laced with gratitude<\/p>\n

Majka\u2019s farewell was marked by a guard of honour and warm tributes throughout the day. It was the sort of send-off earned over years spent as one of the peloton\u2019s most respected mountain domestiques.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy with what I\u2019ve achieved,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI\u2019m proud of my career, and of course it\u2019s sad. I\u2019ll miss these races, but I want to thank all the fans for all these years, and above all my family. Life goes on, the years fly by. Thank you, fans, for all those years, for the support and the energy you gave me on the roadside. I\u2019m happy. Thank you so much for these 15 years of encouragement and belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beside the barriers, his wife Magdalena stood watching with a mixture of relief and melancholy. \u201cI\u2019ve waited 19 years for this, because Rafa\u0142 has been a cyclist for as long as we\u2019ve been together,\u201d she said. \u201cBut today it comes with a strange feeling. This is the date, everything ends. It\u2019s a special day, and I hope we\u2019ll make it a special one.\u201d<\/p>\n

A career built on loyalty and climbing strength<\/p>\n

Majka turned professional in 2011 and quickly forged a reputation as a pure climber capable of both winning and working. His breakthrough came with two stage victories and the King of the Mountains title at Tour de France 2014, and a bronze medal at Olympic Games Rio 2016 confirmed his individual class.<\/p>\n

But his legacy will be equally tied to the work he did in service of others. Majka was the ever-reliable lieutenant for Alberto Contador<\/a> at Tinkoff, later becoming a cornerstone of UAE Team Emirates\u2019 Grand Tour dominance, helping Pogacar to multiple victories at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

He became known as a rider who could bury himself for his leaders in the high mountains, a loyal presence who made victory possible for others \u2014 and who never seemed to need the limelight himself.<\/p>\n

No \u201cright\u201d moment to say goodbye<\/p>\n

For Majka\u2019s family, this farewell had been a long time coming. \u201cNo matter whether Rafa\u0142 made the decision five or ten years from now, he would always be missed in cycling,\u201d Magdalena said. \u201cHe always knows how to smile, how to cheer people up, and everyone\u2019s seen that many times. There would never have been a \u2018right\u2019 moment for him to say goodbye. It had to happen at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The date that felt distant for so many years finally arrived on the winding climbs of northern Italy. And fittingly, Majka spent his final kilometres doing what he\u2019s always done best \u2014 riding on the front, controlling the pace, and setting up Pogacar for yet another historic victory.<\/p>\n

As the sun set over Lombardy, Majka stepped away from the sport as one of its most respected figures. His career might not be studded with Monuments and yellow jerseys, but it has been built on something rarer: trust, loyalty, and the ability to make others great. He leaves the peloton with a heartfelt \u201cthank you\u201d \u2014 and with the admiration of fans, teammates, and rivals alike.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A farewell laced with gratitude Majka\u2019s farewell was marked by a guard of honour and warm tributes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-199082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}