After crashing in the final stage of Paris-Nice, Rafal Majka had to withdraw from the Volta a Catalunya. Instead, he was a late inclusion on the Tinkoff-Saxo roster for the Criterium International and after a solid performance in yesterday's time trial, he is now poised to take a top result in the French race.

Yesterday’s second stage of Criterium International was a 7 kilometer long individual time trial with a small bump halfway through the otherwise flat course. But as stage 1 was a sprinter stage where the whole pack finished together, the overall lead was certainly up for grabs.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Marko Kump finished third this morning and could practically smell the leader’s jersey but Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) managed to win the stage and take over the overall lead of the race.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka finished 19th and is now also 19th in the GC with a gap of 27 seconds to the leader’s jersey before tomorrow’s mountain stage.

“I think Rafa (Majka) did a solid time trial considering the course and compared to other rivals for tomorrow’s mountain wrap-up," sports director Fabrizio Guidi said. "The big question is though how well he’s doing after his crash and following break from racing. But we’ll do our very best to support him and we hope that he can finish among the best in tomorrow’s mountain top finish."