Rafał Majka

2013

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 rider classification, which eventually fell to Betancur in the penultimate stage. In the general classification, he ended up seventh, eight minutes behind winner Vincenzo Nibali.

2014

Majka in the polka-dot jersey, as leader of the mountains classification, at the 2014 Tour de France

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, becoming the first Polish rider 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 Polish rider to win the Tour de Pologne since it became part of the UCI World Tour.

2015

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 Vuelta a España, attempting to gain a top 5 or podium finish in the general classification. 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.

2016

Majka at the 2016 Tour de France

At the 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 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 mountains 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 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–Hansgrohe 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]

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Giro d'Italia	—	—	7	6	—	5	—	—
Tour de France	—	—	—	44	28	27	DNF	19
Vuelta a España	DNF	32	19	—	3	—	39	13