Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) has confirmed that he will once again target the Tour de France next season. Speaking after the team presentation in Germany earlier this week, Majka said that he is aiming for a career-best finish with a top-five placing.
Majka targeted the Tour de France’s general classification this season, but it ended abruptly when he crashed heavily on stage 9. The Bora-Hansgrohe rider came down on the descent of the Col de la Biche, the same stretch of road that took out Geraint Thomas and Alberto Contador. Unlike Thomas, Majka was able to finish the stage but the injuries proved too much and he pulled out on the rest day. With some better fortune, he believes he can really take on the Tour’s GC.
“The team informed me that I will be a leader in Tour. I would like to avoid bad luck,” Majka told Polish website Naszosie.pl. “If everything goes well, I am not worried about my form, because I know that I can prepare well. I hope that if the previous season was unlucky, the next one will be much better. This year I was well prepared for Tour - I'm not saying that I could fight for the win, but for the top-five for sure.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The Tour de France organisers unveiled a very different route to previous years with an opening week that could trip up a lot of riders. Majka accepts that it is a trickier prospect than this season’s offering but he has faith in his team and will spend time looking at the cobbled stage early in the season.
“For sure it is more difficult than it was this year. For sure there will also be a selection on the stage with paved sections. However, we have a strong team, so it should be good,” explained Majka. “I plan to make a reconnaissance of the route of all paved sections after Tirreno-Adriatico. We will train there with the whole team. We were promised this because Peter [Sagan] will want to win the stage there and I will have to be in front.”
Crashing out and coming back
Majka has proved himself as a serious general classification contender with four top-10 placings in Grand Tours, including a top-five at the Giro d’Italia and third at the 2015 Vuelta a Espana. His relationship with the Tour de France has been a little more complicated with 27th at last year’s race his best ever overall finish. Away from the GC, Majka has taken two mountains classification wins and three individual stages. This year was supposed to be his first genuine attempt at the general classification until his own error put him out of the race.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2iLEKxO
No comments:
Post a Comment