Majka ready for more pain at the Giro d'Italia
Tinkoff-Saxo's young climber hopesꦐ t🅰o improve on 2013's 7th place finish
Alberto Contador is the natural figurehead of the Tinkoff-Saxo team and will lead the Russian-owned squad at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. But Roman Kreuziger, Nicolas Roche and Rafal Majka will all have chances to show their Grand Tour credentia🎃ls in 2014 before giving their all to help Contador.
Kreuziger and Roche hav🐟e🍸 proven their talents in recent years. Majka confirmed he is one of the most exciting prospects for future Grand Tours during the 2013 season.
He is still only 24 but finished seventh overall in his Grand Tour debut at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2013 Giro d'Italia and also impressed by leading the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour of Poland for two days before finishing fourth overall. He was also third at 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Il Lombardia despite the terrible weather conditions.
"Being in the top 20 in the world in cycling is not bad for now," he told Cyclingnews at the Tinkoff-Saxo🔯 training camp with youthful enthusias🐈m.
"I'm very motivated for the new season. We've got a strong team and I've got a lot more experience for the future, especially for this year's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d'Italia."
He rightly smiles when he looks 💎back at his 2013 season.
"The Giro was the peak of the season for me. It was my first Giro but I finished seventh. I was also in the white jersey for a long time but lost it to Carlos Betancur near the end. I was still✱ happy through, because it was a great result for me."
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"Of course I can't forget my placing at Il Lombardia and the Tour of Poland. I wore the leader's jersey in my national T𒉰our! I also learned a lot about myself during three weeks of the Giro. My body learned a lot, too, and I feel stronger for 2014."
A new generation of Polish riders
Majka is part of a new generation of Polish riders emerging on the WorldTour stage, lifting the once famous cycling nation back to a position of prestige in Europe and capturing attention for its best riders at home thanks to the Tour of Poland bei🍸ng part of the WorldTour.
"It's pretty good. W🅰e finished 2013 ranked as 11th in the UCI WorldTour ranking," Majka said with national pride.
"Cycling is getting bigger in Poland. It was h♓uge back in the day of Zenon Jaskula (who was third in the 1993 Tour de France) but we've got some good riders with Przemyslaw Niemiec at Lampre, Sylvester Szmyd at Movistar and Michal Kwiatkowski at Omega Pharma. He has shown he's a really good rider. He was eleventh at the Tour de ⛄France and fourth at Tirreno-Adriatico.
"T༒his year I've also got Pawel Poljanski witꦆh me at Tinkoff-Saxo. He's a good climber and it's nice to have someone to speak to in Polish a little bit when you spend five months away from home."
Heading back to the Giro
Majka will spend a lot of time away from h🙈ome in the next few months as he prepares to target the Giro d'Italia for a second time. He will share team leadeജrship with Nicolas Roche. He will target the overall classification but is also desperate to secure his first professional victory.
"I'd love to🔯 win a stage in the Giro or a🦩t the Tour of Poland. I'm hungry to finally win a race," he said.
"I've been a pro for three years now and had a lot of top-ten places but I want to finally win a race. I need♕ to do it.
"Of course the Giro will be a big goal for both me and Nicolas Roche. Seventh was good buꦑt I hope to do even better this year. I'm aiming for the top five this time. We'll have a good team."
"It's a good♊ route for climbers like me. It's hard with only a little amount of flat time trialing, but there's a lot of hard climbs like the Zoncolan. It's going to be tough."
Like many climbers Majka seems to enjoy the suffering that only racing for three weeks in a Grand Tours can produce. Like natural climbers, he seems to have a near masochistic attitude w🃏hen suffering in races, while still enjoying life with a smile.
"I love the Grand Tours and hard Classics like Lombardia. The harder it is, the more I like i🥃t," he said.
"The last week of a Grand Tour pushes you to your limit but my body seems to like it, too. That's the important thi♛ng and will hopefully help me in the Grand Tours of the futu💃re."
Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.