A year ago, Alberto Contador’s enforced abandon at the Tour de France gave Tinkoff-Saxo teammate Rafal Majka the liberty to go up the road and help himself to stage wins in the Alps and Pyrenees, as well as the polka dot jersey of best climber.
Contador found himself very much down – if not yet fully out – following the first mountaintop finish of this year’s Tour at La Pierre-Saint-Martin on Tuesday, conceding three minutes to Chris Froome (Sky) and slipping to 4:04 behind in the general classification.
That setback allowed Majka a little more leeway than he might otherwise have anticipated at this juncture of the Tour, and he jumped aboard the break of the day when it formed ahead of the Col d’Aspin on stage 11. Six kilometres from the summit of the Col du Tourmalet, the Pole forged clear alone and he had enough in hand to hold off the tenacious pursuit of Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) on the short haul to the finish at Cauterets.
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“Today it wasn’t my objective to win the stage but I had an opportunity. I attacked once and it was a good attack. When the break got 45 seconds, the directeur said I could go with it and from there I did everything to win the stage,” Majka said afterwards.
Despite strong showings at the Giro d’Italia in the past two seasons, Majka was the only one of Tinkoff-Saxo’s elite cadre of climbers held back from riding in support of Contador at the corsa rosa this season. Instead, he was delegated to provide fresh legs and robust support to the Spaniard on the second leg of his – now seemingly forlorn – double attempt.
“A lot of people asked but it was no problem to come and help Alberto on the Tour,” said Majka, who downplayed the idea of chasing the king of the mountains prize for the second successive year. “I came here to help Alberto, not to win the polka dot jersey. The Tour is still long, there are still two weeks to go.”
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