Rafał Majka

Rafał Majka

Majka at the 2012 Japan Cup
Personal information
Full name Rafał Majka
Born (1989-09-12) 12 September 1989
Zegartowice, Poland
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight 59 kg (130 lb)
Team information
Current team Tinkoff
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Rider type Climber
Amateur team(s)
2008–2009 Gragnano S.C.
2009 Miche (stagiaire)
2010 Petroli Firenze
Professional team(s)
2011– Saxo Bank–SunGard
Major wins

Grand Tours

Tour de France
Mountains classification (2014, 2016)
3 individual stages (2014, 2015)

Stage races

Tour de Pologne (2014)

One-day races and Classics

National Road Race Championships (2016)
Medal record
Representing  Poland
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
2016 Rio de Janeiro Men's road race
Infobox last updated on
6 August 2016

Rafał Majka (Polish pronunciation: [ˈrafaw ˈmajka]; born 12 September 1989) is a Polish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam Tinkoff.[1] He is known as a strong climber, and rose to prominence at the 2013 Giro d'Italia, where he finished 7th overall, and 6th one year later. Other major achievements are three mountainous stage wins in the Tour de France as well as the Mountains classification in the 2014 and 2016 edition, two stages and the overall victory at the 2014 Tour de Pologne. He achieved his first Grand Tour podium finish at the 2015 Vuelta a España, where he finished third. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, he won a bronze medal for Poland in the road race.

Career

Majka in the Polka Dot Jersey at the 2014 Tour de France

In 2013, he competed in the Giro d'Italia for the first time, where he had a long battle with Carlos Betancur over the lead in the Young riders classification, which eventually fell to the Colombian in the penultimate stage. In the final classification, he ended up seventh, eight minutes behind winner Vincenzo Nibali.

A year later, he improved on his Giro d'Italia result from 2013 by finishing sixth overall.

Majka was a last-minute inclusion in Tinkoff-Saxo's 2014 Tour de France squad, after Roman Kreuziger was temporarily suspended from racing due to irregular biological passport values. On Stage 14, he earned his first professional victory after going solo on the final climb to Risoul.[2] Four days later he claimed another victory on Stage 17, soloing to the mountaintop finish atop Pla d'Adet.[3] These successes, as well as some other strong performances in mountain stages, earned Majka the polka dot jersey as winner of the mountains classification. Thus he became the first Pole to win a jersey in the Tour de France. A couple of weeks after the Tour de France he won stages five and six of the 2014 Tour de Pologne as well as the general classification.[4] Majka was the first Pole to win the Tour de Pologne since it became part of the UCI World Tour.

In contrast to the previous two years, Majka did not ride the Giro d'Italia in 2015 where Alberto Contador made the first step in trying to do a Giro-Tour double but started in the Tour de France. He achieved top ten finishes at the Tour of Oman, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse in preparation for the Tour. Majka won the 11th stage of the Tour de France to Cauterets from a breakaway to take his third Tour stage victory. Majka then prepared to race his season target, the 2015 Vuelta a España, attempting to gain a top 5 or podium finish in the GC. He performed well throughout the entire race, being able to stay at the top of the general classification with Nairo Quintana and Fabio Aru. On the penultimate stage, stage 20, Majka managed to advance himself from fourth place to third place, finishing the Vuelta in third, achieving his goal of being on the podium of a Grand Tour.

At the 2016 Giro d'Italia, Majka raced as the leader of the Tinkoff team and finished fifth overall, four minutes behind winner Vincenzo Nibali, his best result in that race.[5] Following the Giro, Majka won the Polish National Road Race Championships for the first time in his career, breaking away at the front over the last climb and holding his advantage to the finish line.[6] During the 2016 Tour de France, team leader Contador dropped out, leaving Majka as one of his team's chances for success. Through multiple breakaways, he was able to repeat his 2014 accomplishment and win the mountain classification, albeit falling short of a stage win.[7]

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Majka finished third in the individual road race to win the Bronze medal. He was part of a late breakaway group also containing Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao. On the final descent, both Nibali and Henao crashed, leaving Majka alone in front, unable to preserve his advantage over the chase group to the finish. He was caught by eventual winner Greg Van Avermaet and Jakob Fuglsang within two kilometres of the finish line and did not participate in the final sprint, settling for third.[8] Majka's medal was the first for Poland at the Rio Olympics, and the first medal won by a Polish cyclist in an individual event since Czesław Lang's silver at the 1980 Summer Olympics.[9] Subsequently in August 2016 Bora–Argon 18 announced that Majka had agreed a two-year deal with the team from 2017, following Tinkoff team-mate Peter Sagan to the squad with a role as a team leader in Grand Tours and other stage races.[10]

Career achievements

Major results

2008
1st Trofeo Enzo Sacchi
3rd GP Città di Monsummano
4th Trofeo S.C. Corsanico
2009
1st Firenze–Viareggio
3rd Bologna–Raticosa
4th Gran Premio Città di Empoli
5th Trofeo Nesti & Nelli
8th GP Capodarco
8th Trofeo Pedalata Elettrica
9th Trofeo S.C. Corsanico
9th Coppa Caduti
2010
2nd GP Chianti Colline d'Elsa
3rd Overall Giro delle Pesche Nettarine
3rd Bologna–Raticosa
3rd Trofeo Città di Lastra a Signa
5th Coppa Sportivi Malvesi
7th GP Brogio
9th GP Palio del Recioto
9th Firenze–Viareggio
10th Overall Karpacki Wyścig Kurierów
1st Stage 2 (ITT)
10th Trofeo Matteotti
2012
3rd Japan Cup
7th Overall Tour of Beijing
1st Young rider classification
2013
2nd Milano–Torino
3rd Giro di Lombardia
4th Overall Tour de Pologne
1st Points classification
7th Overall Giro d'Italia
Held after Stages 7, 10–14, 18–19
2014
Tour de France
1st Stages 14 & 17
1st Mountains classification
1st Overall Tour de Pologne
1st Stages 5 & 6
4th Overall USA Pro Cycling Challenge
4th Overall Critérium International
1st Young rider classification
6th Overall Giro d'Italia
Held after Stages 8–15
2015
1st Stage 11 Tour de France
2nd Milano–Torino
3rd Overall Vuelta a España
4th Overall Tour of Oman
7th Overall Tour de Romandie
10th Overall Tour de Suisse
2016
1st National Road Race Championships
3rd Road Race, Olympic Games
5th Overall Vuelta a Andalucía
5th Overall Giro d'Italia
7th Overall Tour de San Luis
Tour de France
1st Mountains classification
Combativity award Stage 15

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Pink jersey Giro — — 7 6 — 5
Yellow jersey Tour — — — 44 28 27
red jersey Vuelta WD 32 19 — 3 —

WD = Withdrew; In Progress = IP

References

  1. ↑ Stokes, Shane (13 September 2012). "Majka renews contract with Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank". VeloNation. VeloNation LLC. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  2. ↑ "Tour de France: Majka wins in Risoul". Cyclingnews.com. 19 July 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  3. ↑ "Tour de France: Majka victorious on Pla d'Adet". Cyclingnews.com. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Majka crowned Tour of Poland winner as Vandewalle wins stage 7 time trial". VeloNews. Competitor Group, Inc. 9 August 2014. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Rafal Majka ends successful Giro d'Italia campaign with top 5 GC finish in Turin, as Jay McCarthy takes 9th on stage". Tinkoff Team. 29 May 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "Tinkoff Teamwork against all odds carries Rafal Majka to Polish national championship victory". Tinkoff Team. 26 June 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  7. ↑ O'Shea, Sadhbh (24 July 2016). "Tour de France: Sagan and Majka save Tinkoff". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  8. ↑ "Rio Olympics 2016, men's cycling road race: Greg Van Avermaet wins gold after crash ends Geraint Thomas and Vincenzo Nibali hopes". The Telegraph. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Gadzała, Paweł (8 August 2016). "Olympic Games: Majka scores another historic result for Poland". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  10. ↑ "Majka joins Sagan at Bora-Hansgrohe for 2017". cyclingnews.com. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
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