Yesterday Rafal Majka struggled in the finale of stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia and today he dropped out of podium contention after finishing 6th in the Monte Grappa time trial. Again he was plagued by stomach problems that also put a dampener on his expectations for the Zoncolan stage.

We’re only two day’s away from the final stage to Triste and with today’s 26 kilometer long mountain time trial, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka was given a golden opportunity of taking back some of the lost time to regain his position as third overall.
 
Needless to say, all depended on his recovery after yesterday’s stomach problems. He decided to ride his time trial bike on the first 7.6 flat kilometers before changing to his normal bike at the foot of the 19 kilometer long rise to the finish line in Cima Grappa in 1712 meters’ altitude. It was an excellent change and Majka passed the first intermediate time check in 14th best time.
 
Crossing the second intermediate time check, Majka was third fastest. However, as the final rider Nairo Quintana (Movistar) set the fastest time on the final time check and was riding towards his second stage win to consolidate his overall lead of the race. But Fabio Aru (Astana) was riding as if he were from another planet passing Rafal Majka in a furious pace near the top of the climb.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider still finished 4th on the line. The man draped in pink picked up the pace on the final part of the climb and took the stage win ahead of the young comet, Aru.
 
Majka dropped to 6th position and is now 6.59 minutes away from the leading rider, Nairo Quintana:

"Before the start of the stage Rafa still suffered from stomach pain and obviously that had an impact on his performance today. It's a sad way to lose our position but that's how it is. Now, we're facing one more stage in the mountains and I'd like to say that we'll be attacking from the gun but if Rafa's feeling the same way, that wouldn't be the wisest tactics. We can only hope that he'll recover over night and we'll see how he's feeling tomorrow," said DS Lars Michaelsen.