Tour de France: Majka victorious on Pla d'Adet

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Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) won his second stage of the Tour de France, soloing in to victory atop the Pla d’Adet. After having duelled for mountain points all day, he secured the polka dot jersey for himself by finishing 28 seconds ahead of Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) with the race leader Vicenzo Nibali (Astana) third.

It was the second stage win for Majka and the second in a row for the Russian team. Tinkoff-Saxo had come to the race to win the overall with Alberto Contador, and admitted that they had no real plan B when the Spaniard had to abandon. But they have now won three of the last four stages, with Michael Rogers winning the 16th stage.

"I'm just so happy about this result and these results that we have accomplished in the last couple of days and today, me teammates really worked hard for me and especially Nico (Roche) was digging hard to set me up on the final climb," Majka said

With double points on the summit finish, Majka came one step closer an overall victory in the mountains classification. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) had diligently gathered points ahead of his rival all along the way, but was unable to match Majka's final kick at the end.

"I didn't go for the first GPM with Rodriguez because Bjarne [Riis] told me wait, wait Rafal, we need to win the stage. When we win the stage, we have the jersey. I won the stage and now I have the jersey."

The stage was a heated competition not only for the stage win and mountains classification, but for the podium placings behind Nibali, and the best young rider competition.

Nibali had no problems, but Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) had to fight to maintain his second place in the general classification as three Frenchman - Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Jean-Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), fought to overtake him.

Peraud responded to an attack by Nibali when Valverde was swinging, and succeeded in closing in on the Spaniard. After beginning the stage 1:31 behind Valverde, he ended the day just 42 seconds in arrears. He gained time on Pinot and Bardet, but more importantly, he is the top time trialist of the trio and stands a strong chance of moving onto the final podium.

Bardet tried to distance Pinot on the descent from the Col du Val Louron-Azet, but was unable to hold his advantage on the final climb, and the two ended the day on the same time, five seconds behind Valverde.

How it unfolded

Stage 17 could have been called "short but not sweet". Only 124.5km long it featured four climbs, three category one followed by a mountaintop finish atop the Hors Categorie Pla d'Adet.

The attacks started as soon as the flag was dropped, and Cyril Gauthier (Europcar), Tom Jelte Slagter (Garmin-Sharp), Martin Elmiger (IAM), Yukio Arashiro (Europcar), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Biel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Jens Voigt (Trek) and Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff-Saxo) were the lucky ones to win the breakaway war.

With all those climbs and mountain points to be had, Katusha didn’t want to let the group go. Joaquim Rodriguez was still one point back in the mountains ranking, and was eager to take the take the title home with him.

That meant that the red-clad Russian team moved to the front of the field and led the high-speed chase, with the group never getting more than about a minute away.

The first climb, the Col du Portillon, came at kilometer 57.5, the 8.3km climb averages 7.1%, and proved to be a launching pad for the mountains classification contenders, including Rodriguez, as Astana controlled the peloton.

The Rodriguez group soon caught the lead group, which was falling apart anyway on the climb as the peloton was only 14 seconds or so behind. Also amongst the new 21 rider escape was Majka, who had a slim one-point lead in the mountain ranking over Rodriguez, and soon the two were toying with one another at the head of the race.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider dropped off though, called off by team manager Bjarne Riis, and a new lead group of Rodriguez, Bauke Mollema (Belkin), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre), David Lopez (Sky) and Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale) formed. A large group was between them and the Nibali group, which had already dropped a large number of riders, at about one minute back.

With 200 meters to the first mountain ranking, Rodriguez attacked to win the 10 points, virtually taking back the polka-dot jersey.

There was a curious incident after the field arrived at the top. A Movistar soigneur reached out to hand a bottle to one of his riders, and came in contact with Orica-GreenEdge’s Luke Durbridge, knocking the Australian down. The rider gives him a good shove, but the soigneur helped him back on the back and gave Durbridge a more gentle shove to get on his way again.

The large chasing group caught the leaders on the descent, forming an even larger group of Pierre Rolland, Cyril Gautier and Yukio Arashiro (Europcar), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lott-Belisol), Frank Schleck (Trek), Peter Velits and Amaël Moinard (BMC), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Jon Izagirre, Jesus Herrada and Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), David Lopez Garcia and Vasil Kiryienka (Sky), Biel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis), Bauke Mollema (Belkin), Rafal Majka and Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), and Alessandro de Marchi (Cannondale).

Just as the hit the bottom of the descent and were ready to head up the next climb, Kiryienka jumped from the group. The Nibali group was now 1:42 back.

Kiryienka started solo up the day’s second climb, the category one Col de Peyresourde, a 13.2km climb with an average gradient of 7%. He soon had 1:30 over his nearest chasers, and 2:58 on the Nibali group.

Roche and Herrada set out to catch Kiryienka, as Mollema attacked the rest of the breakaway in pursuit.

Kiryienka slowly pulled away, gaining just over two minutes on the chasers, with the Astana-led peloton letting all the non-dangerous riders go, over four minutes behind.

Rodriguez, with Majka on his rear wheel, led the chase group across the top of the Peyresourde at 1:48, while the peloton finally arrived 5:25 later.

The chasers caught Roche and Herrada ahead of the next climb, another category 1, the Col du Val Louron-Azet, It was the shortest of the stage’s climbs, at 7.4km and 8.3% gradient.

The gaps started slowing falling on this penultimate climb, and in fact, the chasers caught Kiryienka before the summit. Rodriguez of course jumped as the mountain ranking loomed, and although Majka went with him, the Spaniard had his wheel forward on the line, but the 10 points he gained were miniscule in comparison to the 50 on offer atop the Pla d'Adet.

The Nibali group had by then shrunk to about 10 riders and this smaller group was able to cut the gap to 2.41. Bardet jumped on the descent, hoping to gain time on the two Frenchmen who were ahead of him in the GC, and blocking him from the podium. He put in a strong effort, quickly putting in 30 seconds on the group.

Attacks on the final climb

They all still had to face the dreaded finale, the Hors Categorie Monte de Saint-Lary Pla d’Adet, 10.2km long and averaging 8.3%. As they started the climb, Rolland, Roche, Visconti and Moinard had pulled about 15 seconds ahead, with the Nibali group only about two minutes back.

Visconti was the first to seriously attack out of the group. Roche followed eventually, while Rolland and Moinard could only watch. The Italian jumped again, catching Roche flat-footed and unable to match the move.

Much of the climb was lined with fans, cheering on all the riders. Majka jumped on the climb, but couldn't dump Rodriguez, much to his disgust.

He made another move and was easily getting away, when he slung off from a motorcycle – in full view of the TV camera. Rodriguez immediately protested to the race jury car.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider was so successful that he soon caught and passed Bardet and moved up to the first chase group, joining Roche, Rolland and Moinard. But he soon attacked out of that group too, as the Nibali group also exploded. Peraud jumped to try and protect his placing, and while Nibali easily went with him, Valverde unable to follow.

The Spaniard dropped further and further back, as Peraud moved forward and reached for the second place, but Movistar rallied around its captain, sending Izagirre and Herrada back to come to his aid.

Nibali looked around, and, noticing the absence of his rivals, attacked with a bit more than 5km to go. Peraud covered the attack, but Nibali jumped again. Rodriguez was soon caught, and up front, Majka caught Visconti with 4.2km to go.

Peraud finally caught and stayed with the yellow jersey, and the pair caught and passed Bardet, leaving him with Van Garderen and Pinot behind.

With 3km to go, Nibali jumped again, and 500 metres ahead, Majka kicked up the tempo and finally dropped Visconti, then proceeded, with a wink at the camera, to solo in for the victory.

Nibali moved up through the remaining riders up front, and came across the line third, 46 seconds down.