Tinkoff-Saxo’s GC captain Rafal Majka took an important step in the overall classification on stage 2 of Tour of Oman. The 195km stage finished off with a roaring pace within the last kilometers with two steep ramps that sparked an array of attacks dropping several race favorites. Majka finished 7th, while Peter Sagan crossed the line as 5th in a decimated front group of 18 riders. Fabian Cancellara proved the fastest on the line.

Rafal Majka’s 7th place on the stage means that he moves to 11th overall, just 6 seconds behind 2nd place and closest GC rival Alejandro Valverde. Sean Yates, leading sport director in Oman, was happy to see Rafal Majka perform in his first race of the season despite the fast finish that put the peloton in the hurt zone.

“I’m pleased with Rafal’s performance today. It’s his second day of racing in 2015, which shows how well he has prepared. It’s important for the overall classification as several GC favorites were dropped today”, says Sean Yates, before going into details with the stage:

“It was tough finish. The peloton caught the breakaway in the absolute finale after hammering over the first of the two finishing climbs. It really put a large part of the field under severe pressure and the peloton was split on the second climb as the favorites started attacking. Peter and Rafal received great support from the team and did what they had to in following these attacks”.

Rafal Majka started this year’s edition of Tour of Oman coming straight from a team training camp on Tenerife. He reckons that his ground work has laid a good foundation:

“I’ve been riding a lot during the winter getting kilometers into the legs on the roads around my home in Poland. And since the start of December I’ve been on three training camps with my team, where we’ve focused on building a strong basis for the entire year. I feel good and I’m confident at the moment, and I especially look forward to the mountain stage”, said Rafal Majka.

Green Mountain in prospect

Stage 2 took the riders 195km from Al Hazm Castle to Al Bustan. A four man breakaway went early on the stage and their efforts resulted in an 8-minute advantage over the peloton halfway through the stage. However, several teams including Tinkoff-Saxo worked hard on the second part of the stage and reeled in the escapees with 5k to go. After multiple attacks on the final climb, an 18-man group broke free and faced the battle for stage glory, which Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) won.

“Breschel, Rovny and Beltran worked hard to bring back the breakaway and to position our two leaders. Of course, Peter is not satisfied with being 5th on the stage, as he would normally win a stage like this. But I believe it’s time to give him a short respite from having to compete for stage wins on every single stage to let him recuperate properly after his crash in Qatar. We have an ambitious setup in 2015 and we want the wins, but we must take a bit of pressure off his shoulders”, comments Sean Yates, who now look ahead to the GC-battle on Green Mountain:

“We’re going to take it easy tomorrow, which is a day for the sprinters. On Friday we have the real deal up the slopes of Green Mountain, where Rafal will come to the fore to really test himself against strong competitors such as Valverde, Van Garderen and Arredondo after having distanced Nibali, Rodriguez and several other big names in the GC. Rafal is motivated and I think it will be a very exciting stage”.

The first 19 riders in the overall classification, including Peter Sagan in 5th and Rafal Majka in 11th, now have 50 seconds and more to the rest of the competition. It is therefore likely that the overall race winner will be found among the top-20.