Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka finishes 11th on the queen stage of Tour de Suisse and moves closer to the top ten in the GC after having lost time on stage 2. Despite having felt the effects of a couple of laborious days in Switzerland, Rafal Majka is pleased to see his shape progressing ahead of one of his season goals; the Tour de France.
 
After having crossed the line atop the Rettenbach glacier near Sölden, Austria in 11th place behind stage winner Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Rafal Majka says that he feels his shape progressing.
 
“It was okay for me today, I’m not extremely happy and I felt a little bit tired after the last three days here in Tour de Suisse, where I have worked for Peter’s chances and it was also the first days after my return to racing. The most important for me is that I feel that my shape is getting better day-by-day. I still have two important weeks ahead of me before Tour de France and I have to continue to work hard on preparing myself. But all in all, I’m satisfied with my progress and we will continue to fight here in Tour de Suisse”, says Rafal Majka, who moves to 12th place in the GC.

Stage 5 of Tour de Suisse was not just the longest of the race; it also presented the riders with two HC climbs making it the queen stage of the race. For Peter Sagan, who kept his lead in the points classification, the stage was about saving the legs as much as possible ahead of the coming days that will suit his characteristics.
 
“Today was a day in the high mountains and it was Rafal’s turn to do his race. I could maybe relax a little bit more even though we had two HC climbs. As I didn’t go for the stage win, I tried to save energy for the next stages, where I want to try to get another win. I think I have a chance in the next stages and for sure my team supports me very well and we will see what happens in the next days”, comments Peter Sagan.

A group of eight riders constituted today’s breakaway, which in turn was reeled in on the final climb, where the group of favorites quickly started thinning out. Rafal Majka sat firm in the group up until the six-kilometer marker. He then settled into a tempo of his own and finished 1’40” down on Pinot, who secured the stage on the final part of the climb to 2669m. Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Sean Yates elaborates on the stage.
 
“All in all, it was a solid performance from Rafal. He wasn’t there to compete for the win but he certainly showed that he’s on the right track towards the Tour de France. He has two weeks left to build shape and this process will also continue during the first ten stages of the Tour. Simply said, our blueprint was to put one of the boys next to Rafal to support him and then follow the favorites for as long as possible. The guys did well and we now face some interesting stages, where Peter will come to the fore once again”, explains Sean Yates, who adds:

“We have four days left to race. We will naturally try to seize the possibilities we get to compete for the stage wins with Peter, as we know that he’s going well. And perhaps we’ll look into the possibility of moving Rafal a bit further up in the GC”.