Tour de France: Majka goes on solo romp to win in Cauterets

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Following on from his two stage wins and polka-dot jersey in his Tour de France debut last year, Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) struck out on the Col du Tourmalet for a solo victory on stage 11.

The Polish rider attacked from an eight-man escape and increased his advantage on the long descent off the mountain before finishing it off on the final third-category climb to Cauterets.

Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin), who had earlier made a mighty solo effort to bridge to the break on the Col d’Aspin, was second place a minute behind, while German champion Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18) was the next best of the fragmented group.

"This victory is for my teammates, for Ivan Basso, who is now at home, and Daniele Bennati, who crashed today," Majka said. "And also for my family, who stay close to me, and my wife, who gives me a lot of power."

Last year Majka came to the rescue for Tinkoff-Saxo after Alberto Contador's abandon, and again this year the Polish rider gave the team something to smile about after Contador lost several minutes in the first mountain stage.

"The Tour de France is not finished but I have not come here for the GC. I came here to help Alberto [Contador] and still we had some opportunities. It is still a really long Tour de France, a long two weeks left, and we need to fight for Alberto Contador to win the Tour de France, 100 per cent."

Whereas yesterday Chris Froome blew the race to pieces with his showing on the first summit finish, today there wasn’t any movement at the top end of the general classification but there was a fair selection on the Tourmalet. It was Astana who forced the pace on the climb and the woes of many, including Joaquim Rodriguez, Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, RIgoberto Urán Jean-Christophe Péraud, were compounded.

But it was Astana who lost out themselves as Nibali lost contact with the yellow jersey group late on and conceded yet more valuable seconds.

He has now dropped out of the top ten on GC, replaced by Bauke Mollema (Trek) who gained 10 seconds on the favourites with a late dig. Talk of a leadership change in the Astana camp failed to materialise when Jakob Fuglsang fell away on the Tourmalet.

Aspin-Tourmalet

The Col d’Aspin-Col du Tourmalet combo is a venerable one – they were the second and third high mountain cols ever used in the Tour and have featured many times since. In fact today was the 80th time the Tour has been over the Tourmalet,

The day’s main breakaway was still young when it hit the foot of the first-category, 12km long Aspin, which came 117 kilometres into the 188km stage. It contained former king of the mountains winners Majka and Thomas Voeckler (Eruopcar), along with Pauwels, Buchmann, Steve Morabito (FDJ), Arnaud Démare (FDJ) and Julien Simon (Cofidis).

Dan Martin was clearly disappointed to miss out and fancied a repeat of his Pyreneen victory in the 2013 Tour, which had also come the day after the first high mountain stage. He pulled off a remarkable ride to close the four-minute gap, making the bridge near the top of the Aspin before attacking to crest the climb in pole position.

The descent of the Aspin was a chance to refuel and prepare the legs for the hors-catégorie Tourmalet, 17km long with an average gradient of 7.3 per cent.

Astana hit the front and immediately riders started falling out the back in scenes that suggested similar carnage to yesterday might be on the menu. But whereas some big names lost contact, an elite group of around 15, which included the top ten GC riders, formed and settled.

A few kilometres from the summit, Majka struck out on his own and crested with a lead of nearly a minute over his breakaway companions, with the yellow jersey group 5:45 back. The 31km descent would be a chance for him to use his descending skills to consolidate his lead, with Pauwels the strongest of the pursuers until the road started to rise again.

Chris Froome led the elite group over the Tourmalet and Sky led for most of the way down but not at the same rate as Majka. Many who had lost contact on the climb managed to get back on, one of them being Warren Barguil, who continues to impress and carry French hopes on his Tour debut.

Hot day in the saddle

It was a hot day in the Pyrenees and temperatures soared to 33 degrees Celsius, which, after the previous day’s exertions, took its toll on the peloton with six abandons.

Bora’s GC hope Dominik Nerz was the first to go and soon Tinkoff-Saxo team depleted to seven when Daniele Bennati pulled out. The AG2R duo of Johann Vansummeren and Ben Gastauer also went part way through the stage and the climbs took out former world champion Rui Costa and Rein Taaramae (Astana).

Romain Bardet perhaps suffered the most but refused to pull out. He had heatstroke, threw up on the Tourmalet, and had to drop back to the medical car for ice on occasion.

It was a fast and furious start to the race, with an average speed of over 50kph in the first half an hour. That was because it took a while for a break to settle after an early effort containing Michal Kwiatkowski was deemed unacceptable.

Things came back together after 47km on the Côte de Loucrup, the first of the three third-category climbs that preceded Aspin. There was a brief split in the bunch following that climb, which caused André Greipel to finish ninth on the following intermediate sprint, meaning he lost the green jersey to Peter Sagan, who was second.

After the second climb of the day – the Côte de Bagnères-de-Bigorre – Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot went on the attack in a group that soon became 22 riders strong, but Sky made sure it didn’t stick.

A group of 11 riders then went off on the Côte de Mauvezin, with Daniel Teklahaimanot taking the KOM points, but they were soon caught and made way for the decisive break of the day.

Majka then settled in, biding his time, and though his main threat was Martin, the Irishman’s resources had already been considerably drained by his long bridge across.

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