Tinkoff-Saxo team captain Rafal Majka took 10th place on stage 14 of Vuelta a España finishing among the first of the GC contenders on Alto Campoo behind stage winner De Marchi. Despite slipping one place in the GC, Majka moves closer to the podium after a series of attacks on the final, steep part of the finishing climb.

After ascending into the clouds and crossing the finish line, Rafal Majka notes that he was fairly content with his shape of the day, while the long, medium-gradient summit finish suited him less well.

“I’m okay with today and I only lost a few seconds to Aru in the final acceleration to the finish line. It wasn’t my kind of climb, it was fast with a long, not very steep section until three kilometers before the finish. Astana set a fast pace and I think that my teammates, especially Jesper and Pawel in the finale, did a nice job to support me. When Aru attacked the first time, Jesper accelerated with him, he thought that I was behind but he dropped back and pulled at the front until I attacked to catch Aru and Quintana”, comments Rafal Majka and adds about the outcome:

“In the end, I lost a few seconds on the final hundred meters. I think I attacked a bit too soon but I am closer to the podium. For sure, we have some hard days ahead of us. Already tomorrow, we have a mountain finish again. The climb is steeper than today and now I focus on recovering as much as possible”.

Upon entering the final, steeper 4km of the stage after a long, tiring uphill effort, the favorites initiated the action with several strong accelerations. Jesper Hansen first followed, then waited and put in a dedicated effort pulling for team captain Rafal Majka.

“I was feeling much better today than the previous few stages. I perhaps had some sickness because the difference I felt today was striking. I wanted to help Rafal as much as I could and in the end he was up there with the other main GC contenders and ahead of some”, tells Jesper Hansen.

“I probably made a small mistake, when I responded to Aru and Quintana’s attack. I was focused on keeping Aru’s wheel and I assumed that Rafal was behind Quintana. When I found out that he wasn’t there, I let go, also riding on my limit and dropped back to give it a last push for Rafal. If I can stay like this with the power I had today, I look forward to tomorrow’s mountain stage. No matter what, I will give it my all to support Rafal”, adds Hansen.

Stage 14 sent the riders of La Vuelta back into the mountains finishing at 1980m altitude atop Alto Campoo after 18 kilometers of climbing on average gradients. While Alessandro De Marchi took the stage victory from the breakaway, the GC contenders went toe-to-toe behind. Tristan Hoffman, Tinkoff-Saxo sports director, underlines that the team can be content with the outcome, while stage 15’s summit finish will present a big challenge in the light of today’s effort.

“Rafal was there, he lost one spot but the time differences were very small. The other day in Andorra, he gained time and today he lost a bit to Quintana and Rodriguez but I reckon that tomorrow, with the much steeper climb, will be harder. Today, Jesper Hansen did a really good job for Rafal and stayed with him for a long time. He followed an attack but came back to pull for Rafal, who could then attack and bridge the gap to Aru and Quintana. Today, the favorites were waiting for the final kilometers, where it was possible to create a selection and we also saw that some of the GC riders dropped. Now, we focus on recovery, as we have two hard mountain stages coming up”, finishes Tristan Hoffman.