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2014 Tour de France: Majka doubles his pleasure, consolidates KOM lead

July 23, 2014
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Tinkoff-Saxo’s “Plan B” should be a model for all other Grand Tour teams, as Rafal Majka (Poland) took his second victory of the 2014 Tour de France and Tinkoff’s second in row on Wednesday’s stage in the Pyrenees. Majka’s win bolstered his lead in the King of the Mountains competition, something he lost on the road to Joaquim Rodriguez (Spain/Katusha). Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) placed third on Wednesday’s stage to put more time into his rivals.

The shortest road stage of the 101st edition of the Tour, the 124.5 km route held three Cat. 1 climbs and a summit finish on HC Pla d’Adet. At first only eight men rode clear, but 22 formed on the first ascent, the Col du Portillon. In the escape were Majka and Rodriguez, with Round 1 going El Purito’s way as the Spaniard crested Portillon first.

On the climb of the Col de Peyresourde, Sky’s Vasil Kiryienka (Belorus), who was also in yesterday’s breakaway, bolted on his companions and made it to the top in the lead. However, he couldn’t solo to the peak of the third climb, the Col de Val Louron-Azet, as the Majka/Rodriguez group of 13 caught him before El Purito took the maximum KOM points.

At the crest of the Val Louron-Azet, the gap from the KOM group to the crumbling yellow jersey group was 2:45. Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r), trying to get back on the podium, attacked the yellow jersey group on the descent.

On the Pla d’Adet, escapees Pierre Rolland (France/Europcar), Giovanni Visconti (Italy/Movistar), Nicolas Roche (Ireland/Tinkoff-Saxo) and Amael Moinard (France/BMC) established a gap before Visconti shook the rest loose. With 7 km remaining, Visconti was in the lead, Majka was ahead of Rodriguez and Bardet still had distance on his rivals.

Jean-Christophe Peraud (France/Ag2r) animated the streamlined yellow jersey group by bridging to teammate Bardet, but their podium rival Thibault Pinot’s FDJ teammate Arnold Jeannesson brought them to heel. In all this action, second place Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) fell off the back.

Majka lit out after Visconti, snagging the Italian with 4.2 km remaining and then riding away from him 1.8 km later. From the yellow jersey group Nibali attacked and Peraud was the only one who could hold his wheel. The two gobbled up the remnants of the breakaway.

The winking Majka took the applause at the line. Valverde was able to use a teammate leftover from the breakaway to make it back to Pinot and Bardet and then surge ahead to put a couple of seconds into them. Peraud is now eight seconds behind Pinot in the race for the final podium step.

Thursday sees the final mountain stage of the 2014 Tour de France and features two fearsome HC climbs, the Tourmalet and the Hautacam. Majka holds a 26-point King of the Mountains lead over Nibali and 32 over Rodriguez.

UPDATE: Race officials penalized Majka the following for using a motorcycle for a hand sling: 10 seconds, 50 Swiss francs and 5 KOM points.

2014 Tour de France Stage 17
1) Rafal Majka (Poland/Tinkoff-Saxo) 3:35:23
2) Giovanni Visconti (Italy/Movistar) +0:29
3) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) +0:46
79) Christian Meier (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +19:37
134) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +27:46


2014 Tour de France GC
1) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) 76:41:28
2) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +5:26
3) Thibault Pinot (France/FDJ) +6:00
121) Christian Meier (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +3:26:19
133) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +3:41:40

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