Rafal Majka continued his fantastic Tour de France when he won today's queen stage in solo fashion. Instead of focusing on the KOM sprints early in the stage, he gambled it all on the final climb and the tactics paid off as he also consolidated his lead in the mountains classification.

Two stage wins in two day’s and a consolidation of the mountains classification.That’s the reality after Rafal Majka won today’s stage 17 to Plat d’Adet in the Pyrenees. The 24-year old Pole had been in the breakaway together with teammate Nicolas Roche and on the final climb of the day, he managed to drop all of his rivals.

“I’m just so happy for this win and what we’ve achieved the last days of this Tour. This is my first Tour and I’ve won two stages already. It’s simply unbelievable. Nicolas and I were together in the break throughout the stage and the work Nico did out front was very important”, says Rafal Majka after crossing the finish line.

Rafal crossed the finish line 29 seconds in front of Visconti with race leader Nibali 17 seconds further behind. The two-times stage winner tells that the plan wasn’t to secure points for the mountains classifications but to win the stage.

“Bjarne said to me, ‘if you win the stage, you’ll secure the jersey for now’. So it was really important for me to get in the breakaway. I only thought about getting up the last climb as the first man, because that was the key to winning the stage and securing the points for the jersey," he says. "Today, I proved to myself that if I attack early on, my chances of winning are bigger. I really like the Tour because the weather suits me really well and I feel really strong."

“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. I wasn’t so sure about how managing the stage at first but Bjarne told me to go for the stage and if we take the stage, we will have the jersey and here we are.

“At the team's meeting, we've been instructed to have one rider in the front group at the very beginning of the stage for someone to be up there to help me. Nicolas Roche was the one. He did a lot of work for me. I'm really happy with how it went.

"Before the first KOM price, Bjarne [Riis] told me to not sprint at the top. He's very intelligent. He said that the stage victory would give me the polka dot jersey, not the first KOM price.

"When I heard we had two minutes lead at the top of the second last climb, I've believed I could win the stage. I was feeling good. In the last climb, I only wanted to drop Purito. I've tried three times, then I followed one guy [Amaël Moinard] and I stayed with [Pierre] Rolland and Roche. I dropped Rolland and I came across to Visconti. I felt comfortable in the last five kilometers. A lot of climbs in a stage, it's the best for me.

"This is my first Tour de France and I already have two stage victories. I really like the Tour de France now. Maybe, it's the best Grand Tour for me because the weather is good, unlike at the Giro.

"Our team had bad luck in stage 10 [with Contador crashing] but after that, Bjarne and Oleg [Tinkov] said that we needed to fight for a stage victory. We didn't win one but three stages, and now with the polka dot jersey, I feel good. But there's still one hard stage to go, I will fight more because this jersey is really important for the team.”

DS Philippe Maduit was just as content.

“Rafal did such a fine job out there. He was very composed throughout the day and tactically, he rode the stage perfectly”.