After days of sunshine and intense heat, storms of wind and rain whipped the peloton on today’s stage. If the parcours itself wasn’t hard enough – a 146km stage with four categorised climbs – the weather was bound to demoralise the riders and make a hard day in the saddle even harder. Riding in the break for the third successive road stage, Rafal Majka confirmed his position as King of the Mountains taking points on the first three climbs of the day and is set to carry the jersey into Paris on Sunday.
Climbing from the start in Albertville on one of two uncategorised climbs, today’s stage was going to be incredibly difficult. Rafal Majka would be aiming to tighten his grip on the Maillot à Pois, but at the same time with only two stages before the ride into Paris, the GC riders would also have their ambitions for the stage. Four categorised climbs, the hardest being the Hors Catégorie Montée de Bisanne, would separate riders from the finish and potential glory.
The next two stages would be pivotal for the Polish national road champion, and from the start Rafal Majka went on the attack to claim as many points as possible in the mountains contest. In the breakaway, and quickly building an advantage on the peloton, Rafal was joined by Robert Kiserlovski to ensure he was supported on the climbs to take as many points as possible. The large group included Rafal’s main rival in the KOM contest and so it was essential that the Tinkoff riders took control. Pushing hard and setting a fast pace, Robert forced several of the break to drop out, unable to maintain the high speed of the Croatian rider.
When Rafal saw the break forming and his main rival for the climbers’ jersey escaping, he knew he had to go with him. “Mathematically I knew I had to go when I saw De Gendt go in the break. He took the first two so before the last climb we went a bit faster and I took the points there. Robert gave me a lot of help today and my teammates supported me in the earlier stages.”
Taking points on the first two climbs, and the full set on the Hors Catégorie climb, Rafal cemented his position as King of the Mountains, and while there is still one mountain stage to race, it was confirmed that his lead in the contest was insurmountable.
Rafal had nothing but praise for the entire team after his successes in the race. “We have a great team in Tinkoff and we’re so happy to have two jerseys. It’s our way of saying thank you to Oleg Tinkov for all his support. We’ve had some great results in the race and I’ve come in the top three myself a few times. I’m happy because we fought for two jerseys – the Polka Dot Jersey for me and the Green for Peter, and in the end even with the bad luck early in the race, we should have two jerseys in Paris. Without Alberto we were still able to ride a good race, but we needed to fight and we fought hard.”
After taking the points on the climb and a hard effort in the break for a third road stage, the weather took a turn for the worse and the roads became slippery and treacherous. Opting to stay safe than jeopardise his jersey by crashing, the Polish national road champion dropped back to the chasing peloton, his and Robert’s work done for the day. After working so hard for the jersey, the Polish rider wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise it now. “When it started to rain, normally in the mountains it’s nice weather, but at the end it was slippery and I saw a lot of crashes and I didn’t want to risk it, so went easy behind and followed the bunch on the last climb. I saw Nibali and Froome go down and I just wanted to go easy and not crash. I crashed ten days ago and know how much it hurts so I just took it easy. I was tired from the break too and had expended a lot of energy.”
With several riders crashing, including the yellow jersey, attention turned to the GC race, where Roman Kreuziger was riding with the peloton and the favourites. The Czech national road champion had pushed hard throughout the stage, staying in touch with the GC riders on every climb of the day, but as the pace rose and more and more dropped off the yellow jersey group, so too did Roman, with just a few kilometres still to race.
From the finish, Sport Director, Steven De Jongh was pleased with Rafa’s strong performance confirming his place as King of the Mountains, but in spite of his best efforts, Roman had suffered. “Another strong ride by Rafa today, and he secured the polka dot jersey which is great. On the other side, Roman wasn’t having a good day, and wasn’t feeling good from start, so he lost time today. The other guys were ok, it was a really tough day, but no crashes for us luckily which is good and we will go to Paris with the Green and Polka Dot jerseys which is nice.”
Tinkoff Heading to Paris with Two Leader Jerseys
Looking back on the race and his season, Rafal had every reason to be happy. “I’m happy with my performance. Today I felt good and won the last climb and took the jersey for Paris. I wanted to take the points to close the jersey contest so we could take both Green and the Polka Dot to Paris. Maybe I didn’t win a stage but I’m happy with my performance. After taking the top five in the Giro and now the Polka Dot jersey, it’s been a great season.”
It’s another hard day’s riding in the mountains tomorrow, with only one stage before the traditional procession into Paris for the race’s finale on Sunday. At 146.5km – similar to today’s stage – it’s another fairly short stage, but what the day lacks in distance, it makes up for with climbing. Four categorised climbs dot the stage, with the Hors Catégorie Col de Joux Plane the final climb of the Tour before a descent into Morzine. 11.6km long with ramps of up to 11.5% in the middle section, De Jongh knew it was going to be another hard ride. “It was a tough day in the office today and we have another tough day tomorrow. We have to see how the legs are tomorrow – there’s a tough start with an early climb. There are still some big teams without a stage win and they will probably want to go for it so we could see a big group go again.”
Stage Result
1. Romain Bardet (FRA) AG2R La Mondiale 04:14:08
2. Joaquin Rodriguez (SPA) Team Katusha +00:00:23
3. Alejandro Valverde (SPA) Movistar Team +00:00:23
4. Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre – Merida +00:00:23
5. Nairo Quintana (COL) Movistar Team 00:00:26
17. Roman Kreuziger (CZE) Tinkoff +00:01:58
27. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:06:13
42. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO) Tinkoff +00:11:43
69. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff +00:19:57
113. Oscar Gatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:31:28
114. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:31:28
162. Maciej Bodnar (POL) Tinkoff +00:31:28
172. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +00:31:44
GC After Stage 19
1. Chris Froome (GBR) Team Sky 82:10:37
2. Romain Bardet (FRA) AG2R La Mondiale +00:04:11
3. Nairo Quintana (COL) Movistar Team +00:04:27
4. Adam Yates (GBR) Orica-BikeExchange +00:04:36
5. Richie Porte (AUS) BMC Racing Team +00:05:17
12. Roman Kreuziger (CZE) Tinkoff +00:09:45
28. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +01:04:26
52. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO) Tinkoff +02:05:02
85. Michael Valgren (DEN) Tinkoff +02:53:23
94. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +03:03:16
144. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +03:52:29
154. Maciej Bodnar (POL) Tinkoff +03:59:48
157. Oscar Gatto (ITA) Tinkoff +04:00:10
