Yesterday Rafal Majka took the mountains jersey off Joaquim Rodriguez' shoulders but the Pole faces a hard defence in today's stage which has lots of points on offer. The Tinkoff-Saxo rider admits that he expects it to be a rough day.

When Tinkoff-Saxo entered this year’s Tour de France for two and a half weeks ago, there was only one goal – the overall victory for Alberto Contador. It made the blow even harder when Contador crashed out of the race on a wet descent where he broke his tibia. New goals were necessary to re-ignite new motivation and the Tinkoff-Saxo riders were now given the opportunity of chasing stage wins. Rafal Majka and yesterday, Michael Rogers have now secured two of them and Majka leads the mountain classification.

Rafal Majka said before today’s mountain stage:

“Yesterday’s stage was really hard with hard climbs and headwind but Michael was riding phenomenally and took another stage for us by using his experience and raw power. When Bjarne told us over the radio that Michael was in the break, I was happy because I knew he could go all the way. After Alberto abandoned with a broken leg, we had to set new goals and now we have two stage wins and the mountain jersey. However, it will be very difficult to keep it as I have two strong riders right behind me in the competition but we’ll see how today’s rough stage unfolds. With two stage wins already, we have nothing to lose,” said Tinkoff-Saxo’s Majka.

Majka has 89 points in the mountain classification but Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) is breathing down his neck with 88 points while race leader, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) has 86 points. Today’s stage contains 3 category-1 climbs and the HC category uphill finish to Saint Lary – Pla d’Adet.