Tinkoff-Saxo DS Sean Yates has told Cyclingnews that he thinks Rafal Majka will soon be a challenger for the Tour de France, after two impressive seasons riding Grand Tours.

“He’s a rider that’s on the ascendancy with his performances from last year,” Yates told Cyclingnews at the top of Green Mountain, where Majka finished fourth on stage four of the Tour of Oman. “There is no quarter given at this time of year. Every time you go into a race and you’re the leader of a team, which Rafal is here, you want to perform to the best of his ability. He’s a potential future Grand Tour leader for a team.”

“Obviously he’s in a team with Contador so it’s hard but if he went to any other team, apart from three or four, he would be a Grand Tour leader in the Tour de France. But that is a couple of years ahead of him.”

Majka has excelled in Italy the last few seasons, with second in the 2013 Milan-Turin, third in Il Lombardia that year to go with seventh in the Giro.

But he really showed his class in 2014, with sixth in the Giro despite being ill in the race, two stage wins and the GC in his home race the Tour of Poland as well as the Mountains Jersey and two stages at the Tour de France.