Tour de France 2014 is one of the most exciting in many years. Prior to the start, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome were all considered as viable contenders for the main prize. After Froome and Contador were eliminated by injuries sustained in crashes during the first week, Vincenzo Nibali has been left as the main contender for the final win, and this Tour is indeed his to lose. After today's seventeenth stage, he is the comfortable leader, ahead of Valverde and with only one mountain stage left. However, the real hero of the Tour de France 2014 is a young Polish rider of Tinkoof-Saxo team, Rafal Majka, who after placing 6th overall in this year Giro D'Italia, a difficult and long multiple stage race, wasn't even supposed to be in the Tour de France. However, at the last moment he had to take place of Roman Kreziger on the Tinkoff-Saxo team. Since he wasn't prepared for riding in the Tour de France 2014, he sustained losses in the first week of the Tour, particularly that he was brought here with an idea of helping Contador to win the Tour. At the end of the first week, after Contador crashed out, Majka has been liberated, and as soon as the Tour entered the Alps, and now the Pyrenees, the whole world could have finally seen the next great star of cycling in the making. First, on stage 13 from Saint Etienne to Chamrousse, Majka finished second, beaten just by 10 seconds only by Vincenzo Nibali. However, the next day, Majka has left behind his back everybody, including Nibali, and won the most difficult mountain stage in this year Tour from Grenoble to Risoul, at the same time becoming a contender for the polka dot jersey for the best rider in the mountains. Today, Majka repeated his win, by winning 17 stage in the Pyrenees, from Saint-Gaudens to Pla d'Adet. This win was even more impressive than the win in the Alps, as Majka was fighting with Spaniard Joachim Rodriguez for the polka dot jersey, and had to chase the leading group. Smartly, Majka allowed the Spaniard to claim the majority of points on the first three summits (1st category) of the stage, reserving his strength for the last summit (beyond any category) at the finish line of the stage. On the final assent on Pla D'Adet, Majka disposed of Rodriguez, and than chased after Giovanni Visconti, only to leave him behind a couple of kilometers prior to the finish. Eventually, riding impressively on the final assent, Majka won the stage, reaching the finish line 26 seconds ahead of Visconti and 46 seconds ahead of Nibali and Peraud. In general classification, after today's stage, Nibali is in front of Valverde by 5 minutes 26 seconds, whereas French rider, Pinot, trails him by 6 minutes. Rafal Majka, the revelation of this year's Tour de France, leads the Mountain classification with 149 points, ahead of Nibali, 118, and Rodriguez, 112 points. It appears that we are witnessing the birth of the next star of multiple stage cycling - including Tour de France - in the 24-year-old Polish rider, confident and quite ready to deliver, as we could judge by today's performance, and that wink to the cameras on the final ascent. Watch out for him in 2015! In the meantime, let's see how how will he fare tomorrow on the famous Col du Tourmalet and Hautacam...
Janusz Andrzejewski, an attorney practicing in New York City, writes on legal and other community important topics. You may contact him by telephone (212-634-4250) or by e-mail: janusz@januszandrzejewski.com
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