First Tour de France and first stage win. Rafal Majka could hardly dream of a better baptism of fire. Winner of the second Alpine stage in Risoul after finishing runner-up in the first, the Pole confirmed all the potential seen in the last two editions of the Giro which he finished 7th and 6th.

Last year already, the Polish all-rounder had demonstrated his capacity to double up two Grand Tours by finishing 19th in the Vuelta.

After Alberto Contador's crash, he was for sure one of the best hopes of his Tinkoff-Saxo team to play a leading role in the second half of the Tour.

"I think he showed what a fantastic rider he is by keeping at the finish in Risoul the gap he had at the bottom. After Alberto's crash, we asked the team to make the best out of it. We are not doing too bad," his team manager Bjarne Riis said to letour.fr.

"It's not true that I was not meant to ride the Tour. Before the Tour, we spoke with Bjarne and he told me in the first week you go easy and afterwards you try to help Alberto. After he crashed, we tried to win a stage and we did it", said Majka, who turned out to be the best man in the Alps with Vincenzo Nibali.