Defending Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar has been left with just three domestiques ahead of two crucial mountain stages after Rafał Majka had to quit the race ahead of the start of stage 17. 

Pogačar is currently second on GC behind yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

On yesterday's stage to Foix won by Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Majka was leading his UAE Emirate teammate and group of favourites up the final climb of Mur de Péguère when his chain snapped on his bike forcing him to quickly unclip. Majka was injured in the incident. 

Team medical director Adrian Rotunno said: “Majka sustained a strain injury to his thigh after some mechanical trouble on stage 16 when his chain broke. This resulted in a high-grade partial thickness tear of his right quadriceps muscle, and unfortunately due to the muscle damage he is unable to ride.” 

This will come as a double blow for the team after Marc Soler finished outside the time cut yesterday due to illness. 

Last week, UAE Emirates lost George Bennett, key mountain domestique for Pogačar, after he tested positive for Covid-19 and was pulled from racing by the team. 

On the same day that as Bennett, Majka tested positive for the virus, but due to a low viral load and a corresponding low risk of infecting others he was cleared to continue racing.  

The team were also hit by the virus earlier in the Tour de France when Vegard Stake Laengen returned a positive test result forcing him to abandon. 

With two summit finishes in two days in the Pyrenees, Tadej Pogačar will now face a gargantuan solo task of wrestling the yellow jersey back from Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). 

The UAE Emirates leader is now left with just Brandon McNulty, Mikkel Bjerg and Marc Hirschi in support as he looks to win a third Tour de France title. 

Earlier today, Lotto Soudal announced that Tim Wellens has tested positive for Covid-19 and will also not start today's stage. 

Two riders face further Covid testing after the whole Tour de France peloton underwent testing on Sunday evening. 150 riders tested negative on the lateral flow tests, and so are free to continue.

The UCI released a statement saying that, similar to the last rest day, all riders were tested the day before the second rest day. The statement confirmed that all tests were negative, with the exception of two riders who have had their test results sent for further examination on a biological basis. 

However, the two riders in question are outside the top 20 of the race’s overall classification. 

On Sunday evening, all riders were immediately tested after the stage which ended with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) taking the win. 

The statement in full read:  “In accordance with the "Rules for the organisation of road cycling competitions in the context of the coronavirus pandemic" established by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and recently updated for the Grand Tours, all riders participating in the Tour de France were tested on the evening of 17 July, the day before the rest day.

While the two riders undergoing further testing are completely asymptomatic, security measures (isolation of the two riders) have been implemented to protect the other participants.

A final decision on their participation in the remainder of the event will be taken by tomorrow morning in a collegial manner by the concerned parties (Covid-19 event and team doctors, and the UCI Medical Director).

In order to combat the spread of Covid-19 in the most effective way, the organiser (ASO) of the Tour de France announced on 12 July that access to the teams’ paddocks is only allowed to UCI representatives, team staff and staff within the race organisation.

The UCI reminds all participants that the rules introduced over the last two years in the interests of everyone's health and safety continue to apply. These include the obligation to wear a mask, to maintain sufficient physical distance and to disinfect hands frequently.”

Last week, Rafał Majka (UAE Team Emirates) was the second rider to return a positive test mid-race and then cleared to continue by the UCI medical director. Before the Tour de France got underway in Copenhagen, Bob Jungels (AG2R Citroën) tested positive for the virus but was cleared to begin racing. Jungels later won stage nine that finished in Châtel. 

Over the weekend, Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education- EasyPost) and Simon Clarke (Israel-PremierTech) were pulled from the race by their respective teams after returning positive tests for Covid. 

Many will take this morning’s news cautiously for now. On Tuesday last week, it was announced that George Bennett (UAE Team Emirates) had returned a positive test as well as other riders meaning that they were also sent home. 

Stage 16 on Tuesday will bring the first of three stages in the Pyrenees, it remains to be seen whether individual teams will discover positive cases amongst their ranks as the race continues. 

George Bennett and Rafał Majka have tested positive for Covid. The news was announced by UAE Team Emirates on Tuesday morning, and could damage race leader Tadej Pogačar's hopes of defending his title.

Bennett has been withdrawn from the Tour de France although Majka has been cleared to continue racing. 

UAE Team Emirates confirmed that Bennett was displaying some symptoms on Monday evening and will not start today’s stage in Morzine after returning a positive test result. However after being cleared by the UCI medical team, Rafał Majka will race on. 

UAE Team Emirates confirmed the news via social media and on Bennett, they said: 

“Sadly our rider George Bennett tested positive for Covid-19 and will not continue today in the #TDF2022 On Monday he was tested as per internal protocols of the team and returned a positive result. This was confirmed by a PCR test.” 

The statement included comments from Dr. Adrian Rotunno, Medical Director at UAE Team Emirates who added: 

“On Monday night George displayed some symptoms and per our protocol he was tested for Covid-19 and returned a positive result. Therefore he will not start today."

Ahead of a crucial week of racing in the high-mountains, Bennett’s withdrawal is a huge blow for Tadej Pogačar and the team. 

Bennett is a key mountain domestique for the current race leader and has been present at the front of the peloton in the UAE train for much of the race. Last Friday on the climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, Bennett was one of the last riders to stay with Pogačar along with Rafał Majka. He would also have been expected to be present on the final climb to Col du Granon and Alpe d'Huez in stages this week.

In relation to Majka's positive test, the statement from Dr. Rotunno added:

"As per our internal protocols Rafał Majka was tested for Covid-19 and returned a positive result this morning. He is asymptomatic and analysing his PCR found he had a very low risk of infectivity, similar to the case of Bob Jungels earlier in the race."

"As per protocol we reported it to the UCI medical team this morning, who granted Rafal permission to take the start just prior to race departure. We are aware Rafal's clinical picture may change and we are closely monitoring his situation."

UAE Team Emirates are now down to six remaining riders in a huge blow for Tadej Pogačar in a big week of racing. It remains to be seen how much Maijka will be able to contribute to the team in light of his illness.

Last week Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) showed signs of what he was capable of on Friday’s stage and is widely expected to thrive on the longer climbs on Wednesday and Thursdays summit finishes. Vingegaard is just 39 seconds from the race lead, and if Jumbo-Visma pile on the pressure this week then Pogačar may find himself quickly isolated.

Bennett and Majka's positive tests come not long after another positive test at UAE Team Emirates at the Tour de France. Last week, Vegard Stake Laengen also returned a positive test result and was withdrawn from racing. 

When asked about the UAE Team Emirates situation, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) told Cycling Weekly that ahead of the big mountain stages, Bennett's withdrawal would be felt by Pogačar's squad. 

The American rider explained that it wouldn't immediately impact his team's tactics. 

Kuss said: "Yeah, it's definitely a blow for UAE. Especially coming into the mountains now. They still have a lot of strong guys left and for the most part, it won't change our tactics too much.

Earlier today, Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange-Jayco) was also withdrawn from the Tour after also returning a positive test result which was confirmed by his team. 

Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) says that he has nothing to with the Team Altopack investigation in Lucca, Italy, where wiretaps allegedly revealed a sports director saying he took drugs as an amateur.

The sting last week in central Italy's Tuscany region led to six arrested and 17 placed under investigation. Team Altopack's top brass and extended members were allegedly caught helping their under 23 riders dope with EPO, human growth hormones and opiate-based painkillers.

The prosecutor's work followed the death of 21-year-old Linas Rumsas and the four-year suspension of his bother Raimondas Rumsas Junior, 23, for using growth hormones. Police used on wiretaps and video surveillance in relation to team managers and directors, including Andrea Del Nista who was arrested.

Majka rode for Team Petroli Firenze, which Elso Frediani directed, in Tuscany. In 2011, the 28-year-old Polesigned a professional contract with Team Saxo Bank, where he went on to win three stages and the mountains competition twice in the Tour de France. Since 2017, Majka rode for Germany's WorldTour Bora-Hansgrohe team.

Frediani, now a sports director with Altopack, was arrested in the raid on Thursday.

"Referring to the media reports in which the word "doping" appears close to my name, I declare that I do not agree to such slanders as it may expose me to the loss of trust of my friends, fans and directly affect my good name," Majka wrote on Facebook.

"It is a direct attack on my past successes, which I have achieved only by hard work, sacrifices and frequent separation from my family.

"I am proud to represent my cycling team and my country at international events and I cannot allow my name to be combined with any unfair activities which I have nothing to do with. I have never been a member of the Altopack team in respect of which anti-doping rule violation is pending now."

Team Bora-Hansgrohe did not respond when asked if it was investigating the Lucca documents.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) lost a handful of seconds but defended his red jersey on the especial summit finish of stage 14 the Vuelta a España.

Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), who had been in the day's main breakaway, took a sensational stage victory after riding much of the final climb solo to finish 27 seconds ahead of second place Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana).

>>> Should power meters be banned from pro racing?

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) crossed the line in third to take four bonus seconds, with Froome just behind, leaving the gap between first and second at 55 seconds at the end of the stage.

Nibali had been most active in trying to get away from Froome on the final climb, but was unable to make big inroads with Wout Poels doing much of the pacing for the race leader.

It was bad news for Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) though, who, despite attacking first from the GC contenders, slipped from third to fifth with Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) jumping up the rankings to third and fourth respectively having finished with Froome.

How it happened

On the first of two key mountain stages this weekend, 10 riders got away in the breakaway with the hope that the GC teams might let them go.

Rafal Majka, Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Simon Clarke, Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Soudal), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport) and Ricardo Vilela (Manzana Postobon) were the riders to get out front.

They managed a maximum gap of around eight minutes, but that didn't seem enough as the peloton gradually brought them closer.

By the time they'd reached the penultimate climb, a category two pass that began with 30km to go, the break had three minutes and lost several riders.

They lost four riders by the top of that 8.5km climb, with just Davide Villella, Rafal Majka, Patrick Konrad, Rui Costa and Bart De Clercq taking two minutes over the summit.

Marc Soler (Movistar) attempted to attack from the peloton to reach the break, but was unable to make it, with those in the break holding 1-35 onto the early slopes of the final 12km climb.

Majka eventually found himself out solo after dropping his breakaway companions, with 1-45 at 8km to go.

Astana set the early pace in the peloton to try and set up Fabio Aru, but with so many riders being put into trouble in a now reduced main bunch, Aru also appeared to be struggling at the rear of the peloton as Pello Bilbao pushed on.

Majka meanwhile, had 1-20 on the chasing bunch with 5km remaining. Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) was the first to try and bridge over to him with Richard Carapaz (Movistar) with 4km to go to try and find a stage win, with Esteban Chaves the first GC contender to reach out on the steepest ramps of the climb.

Alberto Contador followed shortly after, with Vincenzo Nibali then too jumping from the Sky led bunch.

With Bardet dropped, the group of four only hand a handful of seconds on Froome and brought Majka's time down to 56 seconds with 3.2km to go.

As the Nibali group struggled to work together, Majka was able to draw the gap out to 1-10 again.

Contador and Nibali then found themselves out on their own, but Wout Poels was slowly clawing them back for Froome as Nibali appeared to get frustrated with Contador's lack of work.

As Poels pulled off with just over 2.5km to go, Froome was able to do the final work to get back to Nibali and Contador along with Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez.

A slowing of pace then allowed Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Chaves to come back with Lopez then attacking with 48 seconds to close on Majka.

But he wasn't able to do anything about Pole out front, who rode home to a glorious stage win after seeing his GC campaign fall apart with illness in the opening week of the Vuelta.

Lopez then crossed the line 27 seconds down (with his team leader Fabio Aru finishing over a minute behind the winner), while Nibali took the chance to grab four bonus seconds for third place, with Froome following him in.

The Vuelta continues with another huge mountain day on Sunday, a 129.4km route that takes in two category one climbs before an especial climb summit finish.

Results

Vuelta a España 2017, stage 14: Écija to La Pandera (175km)

1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, 4-42-10

2 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team, at 27s

3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida, at 31s

4 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky

5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin

6 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Sunweb, all same time

7 Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, at 37s

8 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 00:00:46

9 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott, at 57s

10 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team, at 1-03

11 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac, at 1-13

12 Pello Bilbao (Esp) Astana Pro Team, at 1-19

General classification after stage 14

1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky, at 58-30-47

2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida, at 55s

3 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Sunweb, at 2-17

4 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin, at 2-25

5 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott, at 2-39

6 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team, at 3-09

7 David De La Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors, at 3-11

8 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo, at 3-19

9 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac, at 3-23

10 Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team, at 3-48

Rafal Majka has abandoned the 2017 Tour de France on the first rest day on Monday after a bad crash on stage nine.

The two times King of the Mountains winner entered the Tour as joint leader of Bora-Hansgrohe with world champion Peter Sagan, and was aiming for a personal best general classification result.

>>> Dave Brailsford: ‘It’ll take quite a lot for Geraint Thomas to get over Tour abandon’

But Majka and his team have decided he can't continue on with the race after crashing on the descent of the Col de la Biche on stage nine, bringing down a number of other riders including Team Sky's Geraint Thomas.

The Pole suffered numerous contusions in the crash but no fractures, however said he couldn't consider continuing with the Tour as he can now "hardly breath", despite soldiering on and finishing the rest of the stage on Sunday.

“I have pain everywhere today, but I was lucky to have no fractures at all," Majka said.

"I cannot explain exactly what happened when I crashed. I didn’t break or anything, but my front wheel slipped away. Also Risto, our mechanic, almost fell when he arrived with the spare bike. There must have been some oil or something similar on the road.

"However, after the crash I suffered a lot. I want to thank my whole Bora-Hansgrohe team, everybody waited for me first, but we told Emanuel [Buchmann] to go and save our chances in the GC, then Jay [McCarthy] was with me and brought me up to the next bigger group. Also thanks to Michal Kwiatkowski who helped me in the end."

"After this heavy crash, it does not make any sense to keep on fighting. I can hardly breath because of the pain. We had to take a wise decision, for my health, but also for the rest of the season.

"I’ll take some rest now, then I will start preparing myself for the rest of the season.”

Majka fell on the first of three hors category climbs on the 181.5km route of stage nine with well over 100km left to ride.

He continued on and ascended the Grand Colombier and the Mont du Chat on his way to the finish in Chambéry, where his compatriot Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) helped him to the finish line over 36 minutes down on stage winner Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac).

The loss of Majka will come as a big blow to Bora, who lost Peter Sagan to disqualification after stage four.

"[This is] Another big blow for us at this Tour, sports director Enrico Poitschke said.

"We took one stage with Peter, but still the luck is not on our side at all. Now the most important thing is that Rafal can fully recover and take some rest. His focus is now fully on the Vuelta.”

Peter Sagan and Rafal Majka will co-lead Bora-Hansgrohe at this year's Tour de France.

The two-time world champion Sagan will be given a strong lead out team to fight for his sixth consecutive green jersey.

Sagan does well enough on his own, hopping from wheel to wheel so it will be interesting to see Bora provide a more traditional sprinter's lead out for him.

The Slovakian will be one of a two pronged attack with last year's king of the mountains, Rafal Majka, hoping to challenge for GC and show a good account of himself.

The Polish rider was Sagan's colleague at Tinkoff last year and has also brought his good form with him winning a stage at the Tour of California and winning the overall Tour of Slovenia this year.

>>>Watch: Tour de France 2017 preview - The sprinters

The team's sport director, Enrico Poitschke, said the team is the perfect balance for both. "We have to support two leaders and need a balance between guys for the flat, sprints, and climbers. I am confident we found that mix, and now we are ready."

After a surprising start at the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, Bora-Hansgrohe's smart riding capitalised on a confused peloton to capture the stage one victory and the pink jersey, Sagan and co will feel they can emulate that success at the year's biggest event.

With a strong line up of domestiques including the Critérium du Dauphiné's white jersey winner, Emanuel Buchmann, Majka will be confident that he can place well overall, while Sagan will want to continue his dominance.

Bora-Hansgrohe line-up for the Tour de France 2017

Maciej Bodnar (Pol)

Emanuel Buchmann (Ger)

Marcus Burghardt (Ger)

Rafal Majka (Pol)

Jay McCarthy (Aus)

Pawel Poljanski (Pol)

Peter Sagan (Svk)

Juraj Sagan (Svk)

Rüdiger Selig (Ger)

Rafal Majka won a thrilling second stage of the Tour of California to San Jose from the breakaway, taking the overall lead of the race along with his victory.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider beat New Zealander George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) in the final two up sprint, as the dashed ahead of their two breakaway companions Lachlan Morton (Dimension Data) and Ian Boswell (Team Sky) on the final uphill rise towards the finishing straight.

>>> Tour of California 2017 route guide

Bennett had made the decisive attack that split the foursome in the final kilometre, but it was Morton who had been determined to try and get away solo as he attacked twice earlier in the closing 2km.

Polish champion Majka was able to match every attack though, and followed Bennett up the final rise before launching his sprint early and boxing Bennett to the left barriers.

Bennett was unable to round Majka in time, and the Bora man was able to celebrate a hard fought victory on a 144.5km stage that took in five classified climbs.

Majka now leads the overall by two seconds over Bennett, with race leader at the start of the stage Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step) dropped on one of the many climbs.

The stage's profile looked set to favour a breakaway, but it took a long time for anything to settle, with first riders not able to get away until the first classified climb with around 60km gone.

Various riders tried to get into that group, but by the time the leaders hit the hors categorie climb of Mount Hamilton, seven riders had made it into the break.

Majka, Bennett, Morton and Boswell were away with Scott Thwaites (Dimension Data), Toms Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac) and Daniel Jaramillo (UnitedHealthcare) and established over two minutes lead at one point.

Skujins tried solo on Hamilton and took the KOM points there, but he was eventually caught and his own Cannondale team-mates began to chase down the break.

The gap quickly tumbled to around a minute, and despite Thwaites and Jaramillo getting dropped on the final classified climb, the group was working well together.

Disaster struck for Skujins though on the descent though, as he suffered a nasty crash with 22.9km remaining, and stumbled across the road looking dazed.

Boswell, Bennett, Majka and Morton meanwhile pushed on, and made it to the final with 55 seconds in hand before they began to slow and look at each other. Impetus from the peloton behind had gone as they realised the break would contest the finish.

The final kilometre then saw Bennett and Majka make their move, with the latter able to triumph on the stage.

The Tour of California heads into its third of seven stages on Tuesday, with a likely sprint finish on the 186.5km stage to Morro Bay.

Result

Tour of California 2017, stage two: Modesto - San Jose (144.5km)

1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 3-43-46

2 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, same time

3 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky, at 7s

4 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data, st

5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, at 37s

6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team

7 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky

8 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb

9 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors

10 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac, all same time

General classification after stage two

1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 7-29-14

2 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, at 2s

3 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky , at 14s

4 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data, at 16s

5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, at 48s

6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team

7 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb

8 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac

9 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors, all same time

10 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates

Despite having revealed their new team jersey towards the end of 2016, Peter Sagan has had to wait show off his new Bora-Hansgrohe world champion's kit.

The German squad revealed on Monday the rainbow bands Sagan will wear for 2017 after his triumph in Doha in October, as well as the kits his brother and Slovakian champion Juraj, Polish champion Rafal Majka and Portuguese champion Jose Mendes will all wear.

The squad also revealed the first photos of them riding as a team aboard their Specialized bikes, which came on as bike supplier after team Tinkoff folded at the end of 2016. Sagan has already revealed pictures of his new custom Venge ViAS in December.

Keeping it simple seems to be the name of the game as far as kit design goes at Bora, with the new champions' kits kept sleek and minimal with the torso bands and black shorts. Likewise the team's standard kit looks like a winner, with a predominantly black design with teal touches and white cuffs on the shorts and jersey.

Bora will make their WorldTour debut at this month's Tour Down Under with Sagan, who began his professional career at the Australian in 2010.

Check out more photos of the new Bora kit below.

Polish pro Rafal Majka will follow Peter Sagan from Tinkoff to German team Bora-Hansgrohe for the 2017 season, the squad confirmed on Tuesday.

Majka secured his second Tour de France King of the Mountains title in July, and will boost Bora's Grand Tour squad as the outfit aims for success in three-week races.

According to Bora-Hansgrohe, the 26-year-old has signed a two-year deal, taking him up to the end of the 2018 season.

>>> Bora riders expect team image to change with Peter Sagan on board

Along with his KOM title, Majka finished fifth in the 2016 Giro d'Italia and claimed a bronze medal in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games road race. He won two stages of the Tour de France in 2014 when he took his first KOM classification win, with another Tour stage win in 2015.

“I always said that we also need to strengthen our roster for the Grand Tours," said Bora team manager Ralf Denk.

"With Rafal Majka we signed a rider who is able to finish a Grand Tour in the top five. As an add-on our young, German speaking talents, like Buchmann, Herklotz, Konrad or Mühlberger will take advantage, learn from his experience and improve their performance in order to be able to finish a Grand Tour in the top ten in the future.”

So far, Bora-Hansgrohe has signed a number of riders from the Russian Tinkoff team, which will disband at the end of 2016. Juraj Sagan, Erik Baska, Michal Kolar, Maciej Bodnar and Pawel Poljanski have also been confirmed as being signed from Tinkoff along with Peter Sagan and Majka.

The current Bora-Argon 18 team races with a UCI Professional Continental licence, but the are aiming to step up to the top-flight WorldTour for 2017.

Specialized – who currently provide bikes for the Tinkoff team – will replace Argon 18 as bike sponsor in the Bora-Hansgrohe squad.

There's no rest for Chris Froome (Team Sky) after winning his third Tour de France. Less than 24 hours after rolling across the line on the Champs Élysées in victory at the 2016 Tour, the Brit was lining up for the first of the traditional post-tour criteriums.

Wearing his yellow jersey, along with King of the Mountains winner Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) in his polka-dots, to absolutely no-one's surprise Froome took victory at the Nartour Criterium in Aalst, Belgium.

He finished ahead of a front group which contained Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), who won stage five of the Tour and wore the maillot jaune, and Majka, finishing second and third respectively.

>>> The moments that won Chris Froome the 2016 Tour de France

Froome was actually late arriving in Aalst for the race across the cobbled streets, but was still able to take in a lap of honour in front of the crowds before the race got underway.

His reward for winning was a nice big Napoleonic hat, thanks to sponsors Napoleon Games, and a nice big Belgian beer.

Hard to believe Froome drank that though, with a big couple of weeks coming up in his season goals. After an appearance at the RideLondon-Surrey Classic next weekend, Froome will be aiming for gold in both the Olympic Games road race and time trial in 10 days time.

Peter Sagan insists there is still all to play for at the Tour de France, with his Tinkoff team still in contention for three of the four jerseys.

Roman Kreuziger sits only 1-16 down on leader Chris Froome (Team Sky) after nine stages and is the team’s best hope of a top-10 finish after the departure of Alberto Contador on Sunday.

Rafal Majka is also in contention for the polka dot jersey, having gotten into three breakaways in nine days, and Sagan himself is the favourite to win the green jersey.

“You cannot predict how the race will go. Alberto was really bad after his crashes and was also sick in the last few days. He decided to go and recover, and prepare for his next races,” he said.

“For us it’s maybe more of a chance for the team. We still have Roman Kreuziger – he still feels good – and there are more opportunities.”

Peter Sagan's Tour de France bike

Sagan admits that team owner Oleg Tinkov is disappointed that Contador had to withdraw from the race, but says the Russian’s generosity makes it easy to get along with him.

Tinkov will withdraw his funding from the team at the end of the season, with the riders and staff in the process of finding new employment.

“I like Oleg because he’s very generous. He’s happy when things are going well. For now he’s a little bit disappointed about Alberto, but we are still a very strong team.,” he said.

“When we won the stage he was happy like I’ve never seen, and that night we had champagne…it was nice.

“If he’s angry he tells you what he has to tell you. He’s the owner of the team so he can tell you what he thinks.”

Sagan trails in Mark Cavendish in the green jersey competition by seven points heading into the second week of racing. Cavendish admits it will be almost impossible to beat the world champion in the classification because of his ability to pick up points in the mountain stages while the Manxman struggles in the gruppetto.

Sagan has won the points classification for each of the last four years since Cavendish’s only triumph in 2011.

The proposed Bahrain team is busy this month preparing to become the first WorldTour from the Middle East in 2017. It selected Brent Copeland to manage its team and met with the UCI to explain its project.

Copeland will leave WorldTour team Lampre-Merida at the end of 2016 to manage Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa's project, an insider confirmed to Cycling Weekly.

The South African managed Ben Spies in Moto GP and MTN-Qhubeka when it debuted in Europe in 2012, but has spent the majority of his time with team Lampre-Merida.

Copeland, however, would not comment on the move. He will leave Lampre stars including Rui Costa, Diego Ulissi and Sascha Modolo, but find a new project with Bahrain team.

Italian Vincenzo Nibali, winner of all three Grand Tours including May's Giro d'Italia, is making the switch. He will leave Astana to headline the team.

He is expected to bring along domestiques Alessandro Vanotti and Valerio Agnoli. The team needs to fill a 25- to 30-man roster, which could also include Rafal Majka, the 2014 Tour de France mountains classification victor who now rides for Tinkoff.

Sheikh Nasser competes in Ironman competitions regularly. This April, he placed eighth among 1200 in the Ironman African Championship, completing the 180-kilometre cycling leg in 5 hours, 16-28 minutes. After meeting with Nibali last year, he decided to start a team.

He will not make a big splash into cycling, but a modest start with a budget of £11.5 to £13.7 million (€15 to €18m), said an insider. Team Sky, in comparison, counts around £24 million. It will fly the Bahraini flag, but base itself in Bergamo, Italy. Copeland lives in the same region, an hour's drive away in Como.

Who is the funniest rider in the peloton?

Last week, team officials met with cycling's governing body to explain its project for 2017 and its plans to debut in the WorldTour. Despite rumours of a merger with an existing WorldTour team, the prince wants to start his own team from scratch.

Two of the 18 WorldTour licences will be available in 2017 with Tinkoff and IAM Cycling folding, the prince wants one of them to put Bahrain on cycling's map.

Human rights groups are trying to stop the team from happening. They asked the UCI to not allow any such team because of Bahrain's actions during the 2011 anti-government protests and allegations that the prince was directly involved with the crackdowns.

The team has until August 15 to submit its application for a WorldTour licence and if the licence commission believes there are ethical issues, they will consider the groups' letters and the team's response.

Any official announcements on riders will have to wait until August 1 due to the UCI's transfer rules, but Prince Nasser will release other details at a press conference during the Tour de France's first rest day on July 11.

Peter Sagan will make his return to the road at the Vuelta a España as he continues his preparations for the World Championships in Richmond, with the Slovak set to ride alongside Rafal Majka.

The three-week race will be Sagan's first since winning his fourth consecutive green jersey at the Tour de France on July 26 and will mark the third time he has raced the Spanish Tour.

Last year, in preparation for the World Championships in Ponferrada, Sagan started the Vuelta but threw in the towel on stage 14 before the big mountains started. But with a relatively sedate final week the Tinkoff-Saxo man will have the opportunity to add to the three stage wins he claimed in 2011.

Majka, meanwhile, returns to the Vuelta after missing the race in 2014 and will lead Tinkoff-Saxo's general classification bid. It is also his first race since the Tour de France, where he won stage 11 over the Tourmalet to Cauterets.

He could be joined by fellow Poles Maciej Bodnar and Pawel Poljanski in the Tinkoff squad for the race which departs Puerto Bañus on August 22.

Rafal Majka gave Tinkoff-Saxo their first victory of the 2015 Tour de France by taking a solo win on Wednesday's mountains stage 11 to Cauterets in the Pyrenees.

King of the Mountains 2014 winner Majka attacked from an escape group on the Col d'Aspin to win one minute ahead of Irishman Daniel Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) in second and young German national champion Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18) in third.

It's Polish rider Majka's third Tour stage win, after winning to stage in last year's race on the way to the KoM title.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) remains in the overall race lead on what turned out to be a relatively quiet day for the overall contenders, although defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) lost touch with Froome's group on the final climb, losing another 50 seconds to the British rider.

Froome leads Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) overall by 2-52, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in third at 3-09. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) retained his fifth place overall, 4-03 behind team-mate Froome.

The day started blisteringly fast, with a high calibre break consisting of world champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep), Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka), Lieuwe Westra (Astana) and Bob Jungels (Trek) not given any leeway by the peloton.

The quartet were soon caught, and a new escape formed featuring French duo Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), but this too was caught.

>>> Five talking points from stage 11 of the Tour de France

The peloton regrouped before the intermediate sprint point at Pouzac, with Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep) taking the maximum points just ahead of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo). Sagan regained the green jersey from André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) after the latter had been caught in an earlier split in the peloton and been forced to chase back on, finishing seventh in the sprint.

As the race tackled the categorised climbs of Côte de Bagnères-de-Bigorre and Côte de Mauvezin, a new break formed including Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Majka, Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka), Steve Morabito (FDJ), Buchmann, Julien Simon (Cofidis) and Arnaud Demare (FDJ).

After his Cannondale-Garmin team had done much of the early break-chasing work, their plan was revealed as Daniel Martin attacked from the peloton and set about catching the escape group on the ascent of the first category Col d'Aspin. Catch them he did, having enough energy to crest the Col d'Aspin first, with a 7-30 lead over the bunch.

Unsurprisingly, sprinter Demare struggled on the gradients and was dropped from the break on the Col du Tourmalet. Astana hit the front of the bunch and raised the pace, causing both the break's advantage and the size of the peloton to be severely reduced.

Last year's King of the Mountains, Majka attacked from the escape group, electing to ride to the summit of the Tourmalet alone, taking the handy €5000 Souvenir Jacques Goddet prize for his efforts. Behind, the contenders' group was whittled down to around 20 riders, with Froome, Nibali, Contador and Quintana all present.

>>> Watch: Warren Barguil has close shave with cows on the Tourmalet

Majka hit the foot of the final climb of Côte de Cauterets over a minute ahead of lone chaser Pauwels, two ahead of the second group containing Martin, and six minutes in front of the Froome group. Martin decided to have a go at catching Majka, accelerating up the climb and passing Pauwels.

Martin left it too late, however, as Majka crossed the line unchallenged. As the Froome group hit the steeper part of the final climb, Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) attacked, causing an increase in speed. It was too much for Nibali, who after the earlier efforts of Astana once again faded, losing more time.

Aside from Nibali, the contenders group reached the finish together, perhaps mindful of the following day's stage. Mollema moved up to 10th overall, as Nibali slipped to 11th, now 7-47 behind Froome.

Martin received the day's combativity prize for his relentless chasing efforts, and moved up to 16th place overall.

French team Ag2r's woes continued through the day, as team leader Romain Bardet struggled with heat stroke during the stage - reportedly vomiting as he rode along - and Johan Vansummeren and Ben Gastauer both withdrew. Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo), Dominik Nerz (Bora-Argon 18) and Rein Taaramäe (Astana) were the day's other withdrawals leaving 176 riders in the race.

If Wednesday's stage was tough, Thursday's stage 12 promises more: with four categorised climbs in the Pyrenees, including the finish up Plateau de Beille. Expect fireworks.

>>> Tour de France 2015 stage 12 full preview

Results

Tour de France 2015, stage 11: Pau to Cauterets, 188km

1. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo

2. Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin at 1-00

3. Emmanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Argon 18 at 1-23

4. Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN-Qhubeka at 2-06

5. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar at 3-34

6. Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis at 3-34

7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing at 5-11

8. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 5-19

9. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky at 5-21

10. Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo at 5-21

Other

11. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar at 5-21

13. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing

14. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky all same time

23. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana at 6-11

57. Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-GreenEdge at 16-33

Overall classification after stage 11

1. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky

2. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 2-52

3. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar at 3-09

4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 3-59

5. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky at 4-03

6. Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo at 4-04

7. Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto-Soudal at 4-33

8. Robert Gesink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo at 4-35

9. Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Alpecin at 6-44

10. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing at 7-05

Rafal Majka sealed the overall victory at the Tour of Poland after the short time trial on the final stage in Krakow.

Kristof Vandewalle won the 25km time trial stage from Adriano Molari and Britain's Steve Cummings in third.

After winning the two previous stages Majka still had work to do today to hold off the Movistar pair Benat Intxausti and Jon Izaguirre who were only 18 and 22 seconds behind, respectively.

Majka, now known for his climbing having won the King of the Mountains jersey at the Tour de France, managed to limit his losses and finish 13th in the time trial to take the overall win by just eight seconds.

Majka becomes the first Polish rider to win his home tour in eleven years when Cezary Zamana in 2003. Omega Pharma's young neo-pro Petr Vakoc, who held the yellow jersey earlier in the race, held on for a top ten finish.

RESULT

2014 Tour of Poland stage seven

1. Kristof Vandewalle (Bel) Trek Factory Racing 29-18

2. Adriano Malori (Ita) Movistar +0:03

3. Stephen Cummings (GBr) BMC +0:10

4. Steve Morabito (Sui) BMC +0:20

5. Gorka Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar +0:22

6. Dario Cataldo (Ita) Sky +0:28

7. Jon Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar +0:29

8. Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing +0:34

9. Christophe Riblon (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale +0:38

10. Michael Matthews (Aus) OricaGreenEdge +0:38

Final overall classification

1. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo 30:16:18

2. Jon Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar +0:08

3. Benat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar +0:22

4. Christophe Riblon (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale +0:34

5. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida +1:20

6. Andrey Amador (Crc) Movistar +1:21

7. Philip Deignan (Ire) Sky +1:24

8. Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin +1:41

9. Dominik Nerz (Ger) BMC +1:42

10. Petr Vakoc (Cze) Omega Pharma-Quick Step +1:49

Rafal Majka (Tinkoo-Saxo) won for second day in a row at the Tour of Poland, and moves into the overall lead.

Previous leader Petr Vakoc (Omegas Pharma-Quick Step) drops down to eleventh overall, after he was dropped on the final climb to ultimately lose 48 seconds.

Majka made his race winning move with just over two kilometres to go. After good work from teammate Oliver Zaugg had thinned out the bunch on the final climb, Majka put in a committed attack. Movistar’s Jon Izagirre was the only rider able to stay with him, and even he sat up a few metres later as Majka maintained a relentless pace.

Izagirre did, however, manage to limit his losses to just ten seconds, as teammate Benat Intxausti caught back up to him and pace him up to the summit. This Spanish pair now lie 18 and 22 seconds respectively behind Majka on the GC, and look like the Pole’s main rivals heading into tomorrow’s deceive time trial.

A dozen other riders finished around  twenty seconds down, but look a little too far behind Majka to threaten for the overall lead, with Christophe Riblon in fourth at 39 seconds.

Majka had in fact made his first move on the penultimate climb of the day, and managed to force a selection of around five riders towards the top. But the Pole showed visible signs of frustration as the rest of his escapees showed no interest in working with him as a group, and they were all eventually caught on the descent.

Petr Vakoc put up a spirited fight for the yellow jersey and, despite being dropped from the peloton on the penultimate climb, managed to re-join at the bottom of the descent. The Czech rider had evidentially expelled a lot of energy doing so, however, and was dropped immediately as the road went upwards again.

Earlier, a lively start to the day eventually saw an 8-man group breakaway, featuring Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge, Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Maciej Paterksi (CCC), Sergey Chernetski (Katusha), Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r), Sergey Lagutin (RusVelo), Johannes Frohlinger (Giant-Shimano) and Davide Malacarne (Europcar). They were never given much leeway from the Tinkoff-led peloton, however, and were all reeled with over 20km left to ride.

Result

2014 Tour of Poland, stage six

1. Rafal Majka’s (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo in 4-40-58

2. Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar at 0-10

3. Jon Izagirre (Spa) Movistar at st

4. Christophe Riblon (Fra) Ag2r at 0-19

5. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre at 0-20

6. Wouter Poels (Ned) Omega Pharma-Quick Step

7. Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Shimano

8. Robert Gesink (Nor) Belkin

9. Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha all at st

10. Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 0-26

Overall Classification after stage six

1. Rafal Majka’s (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo in 29-46-17

2. Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar at 0-18

3. Jon Izagirre (Spa) Movistar at 0-22

4. Christophe Riblon (Fra) Ag2r at 0-39

5. Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha at 0-40

6. Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin

7. Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Shimano

8. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre all at st

9. Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quick Step at 0-46

10. Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) CCC at 0-47

Rafal Majka gives home crowd something to cheer

Rafal Majka’s (Tinkoff-Saxo) extraordinary summer continues, with victory in stage five of the Tour of Poland.

The Pole moves us to second overall in the general classification behind Petr Vakoc (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), who, despite being dropped a kilometre from the finish line atop the Strbske Pleso, holds on to the yellow jersey by just one second.

The win comes just a matter of weeks after Majka became a household name thanks to his performance at the Tour de France, where he won two stages and the polka-dot jersey.

Despite including three ascents of the category one Strbske Pleso, no rider managed to mount a successful attack, and a large group contested the sprint for the win.

It was a slow-motion sash to the line, and Majka won largely thanks to his perfect timing. Movistar’s Ben Intxausti opened up his sprint a few hundred meters from the line, and was pursued by Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). But this pair tired as the line approached, allowing Majka – who had cunningly lurked in the slipstream of Warren Barguil (Giant-Shimano) to pass them just before crossing the line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgpq__JXQ00&list=UUr-zwAWtbcpy9Trzp9U6pqQ

Before this sprint, several riders had tried to break clear from the bunch on the final climb, including Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Sky), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) and Robert Gesink (Belkin).

Defending champion Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) put in the best looking move with just over a kilometre left to ride, and managed to both open up a gap and force riders to be dropped from the back of the peloton. But he was caught just as Intxausti made his move to the line.

Tinkoff-Saxo was responsible for the pace setting early on in the climb, going at a steady enough speed to discourage attacks yet not thin out the bunch. Despite fading from the front towards the top, they ultimately did enough to se Majka up for the win.

Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Sebastian Lander (BMC), Yaroslav Popovych (Trek), Marco Haller (Katusha), Gediminas Bagdonas (Ag2r), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Pawel Bernas (Poland) and Maciej Paterski (CCC) formed the break of the day, and were joined by a group of counter-attackers with the race on the final circuit.

Of those counter-attackers, Christian Meir (Orica-GreenEdge) attacked the group alone, and was the only survivor of the break by the summit of the penultimate ascent of the Strbske Pleso. The Canadian hung on for a while long, but was finally reeled in just as the riders began the final ascent of the climb.

Tomorrow again features several climbs, and, as the last road stage of the race, is likely to prompt the climbers into attacking.

RESULT

2014 Tour of Poland, stage five

1 Rafal Majka’s (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo in 4-30-38

2 Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar

3 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Movistar

4 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quick Step

5 Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Shimano all st

6 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC at 0-01

7 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale at st

8 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Belkin at 0-02

9 Andrey Amador (CRC) Movistar

10 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre all st

Overall Classification after stage five

1 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Omega Pharma-Quick Step in 25-05-28

2 Rafal Majka’s (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo at 0-01

3 Benat Intxausti (Spa) Movistar at 0-05

4 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Movistar at 0-07

5 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale at 0-11

6 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Katusha

7 Marek Rutkiewicz (Pol) CCC

8 Peter Velits (Svk) BMC

9 Andrey Amador (CRC) Movistar

10 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin all st

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) stormed to a fourth stage victory in this year's Tour de France atop of Hautacam this afternoon while the other podium positions took a reshuffle.

The Italian went solo on the lower slopes of the Pyrenean climb to win by over a minute from Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr). The Frenchman in turn moved up to second overall while compatriot Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) rose to third, both at the expense at Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who slipped to fourth overall.

Nibali now leads the race by a hefty seven minutes and ten seconds with Saturday's time trial the only stage remaining that's expected to have any bearing on overall positions.

But with Pinot, Peraud and Valverde all within 15 seconds of each other, the minor places are far from settled.

Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) meanwhile finished today's stage in third place to secure victory in the King of the Mountains competition. Yesterday's stage winner had set off in lone pursuit of Nibali but was caught by the three man chase group of Pinot, Peraud and Teejay van Garderen (BMC).

Peraud's team mate Romain Bardet also gained a few token seconds on Valverde, attacking the third group on the road in the closing kilometre. He remains in fifth place overall.

After yeterday's 124.5km affair, today's was another short blast of a stage, totalling 145.5km that spiralled from Pau, over the Col du Tourmalet to the ski resort at Hautacam, near Lourdes.

A 20 rider group formed the early breakaway. It comprised Mikel Nieve (Sky), Jesus Herrada, Jon Izaguirre (both Movistar), Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha), Alessandro De Marchi, Marco Marcato (both Cannondale), Lars Boom (Belkin), Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Blel Kadri (AG2R), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Daniel Oss (BMC), Bryan Coquard, Kévin Reza, Thomas Voeckler (all Europcar), Julien Simon (Cofidis), Sylvain Chavanel, Marcel Wyss (IAM), Bartosz Huzarski, Tiago Machado (NetApp) and Florian Guillou (Bretagne-Seche Environment).

After blowing apart on the 2,115m high Tourmalet, tackled from the east side through La Mongie, Nieve and stage eight winner Kadri summited at the front.

Basque Nieve subsequently dropped the Frenchman at the foot of Hautacam. But carrying just a minute's lead on a main group spearheaded by Astana, his time out front was limited.

It was Lampre-Merida's Chris Horner who proddded Nibali into life, attacking with over 10km of the 13.6km climb remaining.

With the rest of the group more concerned with how they fare against each other, the pair were left to it. Then when Nibali decided Horner's speculative move wasn't quick enough with over 9km to go, he lowered himself onto the drops, issued a single acceleration and rode away. Less than a kilometre later he powered straight past Nieve.

The only resistance Nibali's attack faced was the climb's varying gradient and the protruding elbow of a fan who appeared to be on her mobile while looking the wrong way up the road.

Pinot's attacked created a little more response with Van Garderen and Peraud quickly following him. Valverde, meanwhile, was briefly dispatched out the back of what remained of the disintegrated group.

Pinot and Van Garderen did the most part of the driving of this group - which was less a chase of Nibali than an attack on Valverde. Peraud meanwhile clung on. Once recaptured, Majka also took on a passneger role, safe  in the knowledge he just needed to finish within the top six to stop yellow clad Nibali claiming his spots.

It was he who opened the final skirmish for the line, but was superseded by a strong looking Pinot. Historically a dreadful time triallist, Pinot's small gains on his other podium rivals today will unlikely be enough to keep him in the top three come the end of the Tour.

Haimar Zubeldia was the other rider to make noticeable gains on GC. Finishing in ninth on the stage, he knocked Pierre Rolland (Europcar) out of tenth overall.

Results
Tour de France 2014, stage 18: Pau to Hautacam, 145.5km

1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana in 4h 4m 17s
2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ at 1:10

3. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo at 1:12

4. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r at 1:15

5. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at same time

6. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r at 1:53

7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin at 1:57

8. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura at same time

9. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek at 1:59

10. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at same time

Other
57. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky at 19:01

Overall classification after stage 18
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana 80h 45m 45s

2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ at 7:10

3. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r at 7:23

4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 7:25

5. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r at 9:27

6. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at 11:34

7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin at 13:56

8. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin at 14:15

9. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura at 14:37

9. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek at 1:59 at 16:25

Other

23. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky at 56:26

Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) won his second stage of the 2014 Tour de France, and the third for Tinkoff-Saxo in five days.

Majka was the victor from a large breakaway group which attacked in the early kilometres of the stage. Despite initially failing to follow fellow break companion Giovanni Visconti’s (Movistar) attack, Majka paced his way back up to the Italian and soon passed him.

His gap over Visconti was big enough in the end for the Pole to direct a confident wink to the television camera with a kilometre to go.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) retains the yellow jersey and gained yet more time over all his rivals - apart from Jean Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) – with an attack on the final climb. Peraud was the only rider able to follow him up the climb, and the pair managed to catch and pass all of the riders from the break apart from Majka and Visconti, to finish third and fourth respectively.

For a while it looked as though Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was going to lose time as he was dropped on the lower slopes of the final climb, but thanks to some help from teammates Jesus Herrada and Jon Izagirre – who had both dropped back from the original break – he managed to catch back up to Romain Bardet (Ag2r), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC) in the final kilometre.

Ag2r had put Pinot under pressure with Bardet attacking on the descent, forcing the white jersey to use up his teammate Arnold Jeannesson, and Peraud was able to gain nearly a minute over Pinot to put his podium place under pressure.

The day got off to a remarkably fast start, with the riders averaging over 50kmph in the first hour of racing as Katusha attempted to reel in a larger group of stage win-hunters. As the riders hit the first climb, another large group of riders – including Katusha’s Rodriguez and polka-dot jersey rival Majka - bridged the gap to the lead group.

A battle between Rodriguez and Majka ensued over the day’s four summits, and although the Spaniard was able to beat Majka in a sprint for the first three, his stage win atop the Pla d’Adet was enough to enhance his lead in the mountains classification.

Sky’s Vasil Kiryienka made a brave move early on as he attacked the rest of the break on his own. He opened up a big gap early on, and was the first rider to summit the second climb, but was slowly but surely reeled in as the chasing group worked well together.

Nicholas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) were other riders to chance their luck from the break later in the day’s racing, but ultimately Majka proved to be the strongest rider from the day’s break.

Results
Tour de France 2014, stage 17: Saint-Gaudens to Saint-Lary Pla d’Adet, 124.5km
1. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo

2. Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar at 29 secs

3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana at 46 secs

4. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r at 46 secs

5. Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) Cannondale at 49 secs

6. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar at 52 secs

7. Frank Schleck (Lux) Trek Factory Racing at 1-12

8. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin at 1-12

9. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo at 1-25

10. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 1-35

Other

57. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky at 14-17

Overall classification after stage 17
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana

2. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at 5-26

3. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ at 6-00

4. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r at 6-08

5. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r at 7-34

6. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at 10-19

7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin at 11-59

8. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Belkin at 12-16

9. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura at 12-40

10. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar at 13-15

Other

22. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky at 37-25