BORA-hansgrohe has changed the plans for the 2017Tour de France. The new German WorldTour team had initially announced that Leopold König would be the leader in the French race but after studying the course, it has been decided that Rafał Majka will spearhead the new WorldTour team.

In September, the team planned to have Majka as leader at the Giro d'Italia go and König in that role for the Tour. Team manager Ralph Denk has now told Polish newspaper Przeglad Sportowy that they will go for the top 5 with Majka in France. Additionally, Peter Sagan will probably go for stage wins and the green jersey.

The decision is probably based on the lack of time trialling in the Tour as the discipline is one of König's strength. With more time trialling, it would be logical to send König to the Giro.

The German team manager promises to put together a team that can offer his Polish protégé more support than he got at Tinkoff when he was leader in the Giro (2016) and Vuelta (2015). Denk mentions Marcus Burghardt, Aleksejs Saramotins, Emanuel Buchmann, Patrick Konrad and close friend Paweł Poljański.

Majka has already done 10 grand tours. His best result is a third place in the Vuelta in 2015. This year he rode as Tinkoff leader at the Giro d'Italia (fifth) and he finished the Tour in 27th after having worked for Contador.  Like in 2014, he won the mountains jersey in the Tour.