Having crashed in the final stage of Paris-Nice, Rafal Majka missed the Volta a Catalunya and instead he was a late addition to the Criterium International line-up. Having finished 5th in the race's queen stage on the back of a great time trial, the young Pole finished 4th overall and was very pleased with his condition as he continues his build-towards the Giro.

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) started the day in the leader’s jersey when the peloton took on the third and final stage of the French stage race, Criterium International. But as the stage offered a tremendously mountainous terrain with a 14 kilometer long uphill finish, no one expected Dumoulin to hang on to the jersey.

Tinkoff-Saxo played an important role controlling the pace thundering towards the foot of the mountain top finish and 13 kilometers to go, everyone was brought back. Even though the tempo was held high, Tom Dumoulin was very hard to drop and with 7 kilometers, he was sitting comfortably in the middle of the reduced front group.

But with 5 kilometers to go, the leader’s jersey dropped out the back of the group and new attacks from among others Frank Schleck (Trek) dominated the finale but Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka quickly responded to every attack. On the finish line, Mathias Frank (IAM) was the fastest rider and Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka finished 5th which was enough to secure him 4th place overall.

"Now I can say that the elbow injury has been forgotten," Majka said. "Today I rode very fast on the last climb, after having tried to save my energy earlier in the stage. In the end we were down to five riders. Mathias Frank was the fastest, but I lost only 3 seconds .

"I'm very happy with my attitude and form in the Criterium International. It`s a good indication for the impending Giro d`Italia."

“I think we can be very happy with our young line-up in this race securing the overall 4th position and winner of the youth classification," sports director Fabrizio Guidi said. "Of course, we always want to win big but Rafal has just returned from injuries after Paris-Nice and he clearly shows that he’s in good shape covering every move on the climb. He’s not the best sprinter and had to settle with fifth on the stage. He’s on the right track. Now, he needs some more training preparing the Giro."