Rafal Majka discussion thread

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Bump. Showed some dedication to Contador this weekend. Like his style of pulling. Majka rather beats up than strangle the group. Whats his programme the rest of the year?

They will be deadly in the Tour

 

[rm7]

Re:

Bump. Showed some dedication to Contador this weekend. Like his style of pulling. Majka rather beats up than strangle the group. Whats his programme the rest of the year?

He's going to captain Tinkoff in the Giro, and then ride the Tour.

I would have loved to see what level Kreuziger is at in T-A, because the Contador/Kreuziger/Majka trio could be deadly.

I know that it's everything for Contador, but I really hope that Kreuziger reach 2013 level and they keep him high in the GC. Majka can't do GC in the tour, but can be used for attacks like in P-N. He did very similar in Vuelta 2012.

 

[damian13ster]

Bumping the thread. After all, he is likely to have two GT podiums at the end of this Giro.

The only thing I am worried about is ITT. I think he can generate enough power to be top 3-5 among GC contenders, but worried about his cornering. I can understand lack of risk in prologue, but he will have to take risks and ride aggressively in Chianti. If that doesn't happen, he will be out of contention

 

[Miburo]

Bumping the thread. After all, he is likely to have two GT podiums at the end of this Giro.

The only thing I am worried about is ITT. I think he can generate enough power to be top 3-5 among GC contenders, but worried about his cornering. I can understand lack of risk in prologue, but he will have to take risks and ride aggressively in Chianti. If that doesn't happen, he will be out of contention

If he doesn't podium this giro, you can just blame contador for it

You're creative, you'll find a way to do that

 

[Valv.Piti]

Not a fan at all..

Podium might be a huge stretch considering the contenders this year. He has never really done super well in Il Giro and has a super weak team. On top of that, he seems very afraid to attack and seems contend to just follow wheels when he is riding GC, hopefully we will se another side of him this year.

 

[damian13ster]

Bumping the thread. After all, he is likely to have two GT podiums at the end of this Giro.

The only thing I am worried about is ITT. I think he can generate enough power to be top 3-5 among GC contenders, but worried about his cornering. I can understand lack of risk in prologue, but he will have to take risks and ride aggressively in Chianti. If that doesn't happen, he will be out of contention

If he doesn't podium this giro, you can just blame contador for it

You're creative, you'll find a way to do that

Wtf? Never tried to explain poor performance from Majka by using Contador. What are you talking about?

Seriously, zero input into discussion + a personal attack. Way to go man

 

[damian13ster]

Re:

Not a fan at all..

Podium might be a huge stretch considering the contenders this year. He has never really done super well in Il Giro and has a super weak team. On top of that, he seems very afraid to attack and seems contend to just follow wheels when he is riding GC, hopefully we will se another side of him this year.

I think he is in top 3 in terms of pure climbing strength this year.

Yeah, not a fan of riding style, especially in past Giros. This is mostly because of lack of confidence and pure strength though. Don't seem to remember a stage in which he was strongest in his group but didn't attack. Luckily in Vuelta he was more agressive, not to mention 50km solo stage win in TdF and two more stages won from breakaway.
I think the problem with him is mostly that he focuses only on GTs and almost never does anything in other stage races, that's where the rep comes from.

When it comes to climbing I am only worried about extreme cold. He doesn't handle it very well, but when it comes to strength, he is ready to podium. I believe that having strong team is very overrated, unless you get race leadership early or if some team has two legit contenders, which I don't think is the case in this Giro (Nibali and Fuglsang has potential to be that, but hardly proven)

 

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

Luckily in Vuelta he was more agressive

Actually he was very passive throughout the whole race, if we're talking about the 2015 edition.

 

[damian13ster]

By more I mean compared to previous Giros the bar was set very low. He did put in 3-4 digs, got caught, and then went with Quintana on last stage. Unfortunately that was enough to surpass Hus aggressiveness in the Giro :/

I am hopeful though that the trend is positive and that if he feels he is strong enough, the bit of an arrogance that lead him to 50km solo attack in France will kick in.

 

[Miburo]

By more I mean compared to previous Giros the bar was set very low. He did put in 3-4 digs, got caught, and then went with Quintana on last stage. Unfortunately that was enough to surpass Hus aggressiveness in the Giro :/

I am hopeful though that the trend is positive and that if he feels he is strong enough, the bit of an arrogance that lead him to 50km solo attack in France will kick in.

With no GC on the line, that was. He's otherwise very passive or let's just say "wheelsucking".

You're very kind to Majka with your words, i'm not too sure why he deserves that unlike other riders with you But you're human, keeping to the facts without your preference influencing it is prob very hard for you.

He's at his best when he's not riding for a GC. I think he'll be a better version of VDB2. He's still young but i don't think he'll win a GT any time soon.

 

[damian13ster]

Not a horrible TT. Would be much better in dry conditions. GC ambitions not lost yet

 

[dick the quick]

Re:

Not a horrible TT. Would be much better in dry conditions. GC ambitions not lost yet

This. It seemed that his goal for today was primarily to limit losses against Nibbs/Valv/Landa (especially given the weather conditions he clearly dislikes), and that one was achieved. GC ambitions definitely not lost - he should demonstrate his quality in the high mountains to come which are clearly his terrain.

 

[Jakub]

Re: Re:

Not a horrible TT. Would be much better in dry conditions. GC ambitions not lost yet

This. It seemed that his goal for today was primarily to limit losses against Nibbs/Valv/Landa (especially given the weather conditions he clearly dislikes), and that one was achieved. GC ambitions definitely not lost - he should demonstrate his quality in the high mountains to come which are clearly his terrain.

well, a rider that wants to limit loses against Landa in ITT deserves to lose in a big way. No matter how much has Landa improved.

 

[bajbar]

When I seen the weather (and the first intermediate time) iwas very pessimistic, but he improved and in the end only lost around 30s to the GC guys. The thing is, he gained time to everyone who looked really good in the mountains the past couple of days (Zakarin, Chaves, Uran, Pozzovivo). So the top GC guys (from Nibali to Majka) are in less than a minute. So it will be very interesting, especially if Nibali in Landa don't get into killer shape.

 

[Banana_Joe]

Re:

When I seen the weather (and the first intermediate time) iwas very pessimistic, but he improved and in the end only lost around 30s to the GC guys. The thing is, he gained time to everyone who looked really good in the mountains the past couple of days (Zakarin, Chaves, Uran, Pozzovivo). So the top GC guys (from Nibali to Majka) are in less than a minute. So it will be very interesting, especially if Nibali in Landa don't get into killer shape.

Exactly what I thought. The GC battle will be very interesting to follow. And Majka is 100% in it. I don't see Nibali and Valverde with the really best in the very difficult stages...

 

[Arked]

Majka put all his money on mountain stages and MTT. He said before Giro that he lost a lot of weight and prepared his peak for last week of the race. He also sounded very confident when talking about this promising some 'fireworks'. We will see if he made right choices. I am really hoping too see more active and agressive version of Rafal Majka. It will be good for him and for the race. What's the point of fighting for 5th place?

 

[portugal11]

I expect him to be on podium. He is just a minute behind nibali and that is good

 

[dick the quick]

Re:

Majka put all his money on mountain stages and MTT. He said before Giro that he lost a lot of weight and prepared his peak for last week of the race. He also sounded very confident when talking about this promising some 'fireworks'. We will see if he made right choices. I am really hoping too see more active and agressive version of Rafal Majka. It will be good for him and for the race. What's the point of fighting for 5th place?

I strongly believe him as to his own judgment of his form, and I really hope to see him doing fireworks in the Dolomites/Alps. Still, my concern is that the profile of the majority of the high mountain stages is not ideal for him. Being not the best descender among the main GC contenders, and not too much explosive on short final climbs (see the profiles of stages 14, 16 and 20, where the stage ends up with such a climb after the descent), IMO he should go full gas on the Alpe di Siusi MTT and on the Risoul MTF, which are the only remaining stages ending with a "classic" hard climb.

In case of other stages, it may be that he will do really well during all the stage but will lose (bonus) seconds to e.g. Valverde and Nibali at the finish line.

 

[thehook]

I have to admit. I was disappointed in his result in the ITT. Yes the weather was horrendous. But he gave to much time. He already was down. And to give back more was bad. Looking forward. The Profiles are not in his favor. The MTT could see him get some time back. But winning is not looking good. Zakarain, Dumolin, Uran are done for. So yes he can use them to make time if they ride aggressive? Not looking like a win...IMHO

 

[damian13ster]

Yes, the route looks bad for him. I dont mind though. Didn't expect a win, still think he can podium, and this route will actually force him to do something different. I feel that we are going to learn a lot about what kind of rider he is going to be (he is still not developed, gets stronger each year).

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yes, the route looks bad for him. I dont mind though. Didn't expect a win, still think he can podium, and this route will actually force him to do something different. I feel that we are going to learn a lot about what kind of rider he is going to be (he is still not developed, gets stronger each year).

Probably a top-5 rider which will receive a hell of a lot more praise if he hunted stages and rode a little more aggressively instead

 

[StryderHells]

Yes, the route looks bad for him. I dont mind though. Didn't expect a win, still think he can podium, and this route will actually force him to do something different. I feel that we are going to learn a lot about what kind of rider he is going to be (he is still not developed, gets stronger each year).

Probably a top-5 rider which will receive a hell of a lot more praise if he hunted stages and rode a little more aggressively instead

The thing is that he is getting paid as a team leader at Tinkof so he can't just sit back and lose time then go stage hunting, maybe next season once he is free of Oleg he might get a little more license to be that type of rider

 

[damian13ster]

Yes, the route looks bad for him. I dont mind though. Didn't expect a win, still think he can podium, and this route will actually force him to do something different. I feel that we are going to learn a lot about what kind of rider he is going to be (he is still not developed, gets stronger each year).

Probably a top-5 rider which will receive a hell of a lot more praise if he hunted stages and rode a little more aggressively instead

Receive a lot of praise from who? Because surely not from team owner or DS. Maybe fans on the forum but why would he care about that?

 

[dick the quick]

Well, it is a matter of his own personal ambitions, I guess. If you feel that you can be a GC rider and you can be at least near to win one of the GTs, you want to do this. Stage hunting without any GC ambitions is a totally different state of mind, I believe.

Having said that, I must admit that the most prestigious results of Majka so far are - apart from Vuelta 2015 podium - single stage wins in TdF 2014 and 2015, where he did not care about the GC and he took all of them from a long-range breakaway. But I hope that this will change soon.

Anyway, I prefer Majka as a GC contender (even if not successful) than a kind of e.g. Ulissi-type of rider (not to offend Ulissi, he is great at what he is doing).

 

[sucotash]

Mark my words. He is the strongest rider uphill in the Giro.