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Rafal Majka discussion thread

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Jul 16, 2010
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Majka would be unloyal to everyone, just look at his face and you can tell right away. He's a limited rider that can only win from breaks when the competition is weak. I don't think I've seen him more than a handful of times in the Giro. What has Kreuziger done this Tour btw? Good luck for finding a new team when everyone knows you have no loyalty.
 
Wtf? How can you tell by someones face whether they are loyal or not? Thats about the most stupid thing I read on here this week, and thats quite an achievement.

You cant say that a rider is not loyal without knowing the tasks that the team set in front of him. He was great helper in Vuelta, he was good helper in 2015, he buried himself for Sagan in TdS. When he is asked to do work, he does it. When the team sees that the original team leader sucks then they just change their goals. As simple as that. As a person sitting and criticising in front of a keyboard with zero knowledge on what actually transpired your opinion doesnt really matter. Insiders in cycling know more on the subject and they will decide whether to hire Rafal or not (and Majka himself, he is already set financially for life and is happy outside of cycling so he won't enter a team dynamics that he will not be happy with)

And Kreuziger has done nothing. So what? He was simply stronger by far than original team leader so he went for it. Cyclists and teams have to adapt to situation on a road. Besides, what has Contador done this Tour (or any other Tour since doping bust)?
 
Jul 16, 2010
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damian13ster said:
Wtf? How can you tell by someones face whether they are loyal or not? Thats about the most stupid thing I read on here this week, and thats quite an achievement.

You cant say that a rider is not loyal without knowing the tasks that the team set in front of him. He was great helper in Vuelta, he was good helper in 2015, he buried himself for Sagan in TdS. When he is asked to do work, he does it. When the team sees that the original team leader sucks then they just change their goals. As simple as that. As a person sitting and criticising in front of a keyboard with zero knowledge on what actually transpired your opinion doesnt really matter. Insiders in cycling know more on the subject and they will decide whether to hire Rafal or not (and Majka himself, he is already set financially for life and is happy outside of cycling so he won't enter a team dynamics that he will not be happy with)

And Kreuziger has done nothing. So what? He was simply stronger by far than original team leader so he went for it. Cyclists and teams have to adapt to situation on a road. Besides, what has Contador done this Tour (or any other Tour since doping bust)?

It's called body language, hasn't failed me much in life.

Contador has won the following since his doping bust:

- Vuelta: 2012, 2014
- Giro: 2015
- Tirreno-Adriatico: 2014
- Vuelta al Pais Vasco: 2014, 2016

That's more than 99% of the peloton. Only Froome and Nibali have done better. Not even the great Sagan has garnered bigger victories in that time period (WC, the Ronde, 7 Tour stages and 4 green jerseys).

Kreuziger has been invisible in this Tour, he's not fit to be a leader and should always work for someone else. Otherwise we get boring riders fighting for lesser places in GTs, we already have enough of those.

As for good luck finding a new team, that was aimed at Kreuziger. At least Majka still wins races, so he'll have no problem finding a good team, Kreuziger on the other hand...
 

KGB

Apr 16, 2015
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El Pistolero said:
Majka would be unloyal to everyone, just look at his face and you can tell right away. He's a limited rider that can only win from breaks when the competition is weak. I don't think I've seen him more than a handful of times in the Giro. What has Kreuziger done this Tour btw? Good luck for finding a new team when everyone knows you have no loyalty.
:lol: reading from his face?Very frustrated Contador fan boy.Time to start to pray for Vuelta win.Maybe another suprise?How you will handl that?
 
Well, it is simply not true that Majka is not able to fight for the GC when he is set as a team leader (3rd in Vuelta 2015, three times in the GC top 10 in Giro). That makes him (in terms of the GT palmares) on par with such riders as, let's say, Kruijswijk, Kelderman, Gesink, Barguil, Bardet, just to mention some of them. Is any of these riders being criticised as much as Majka for not slaving for their leaders? No.
 
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*** the quick said:
This leads us to the discussion on what is more important in the TdF, in terms of the result achieved and palmares. In other words, what is the main prize and what is just a consolation prize.

In my opinion, this may vary depending on the personal/individual goals and expectations of each rider. But generally, I agree with the following order, as set out by Eurosport commentators in my country:

1. GC win
2. GC podium
3. Stage win
4. Green/polka-dot/white jersey in Paris
5. Top 10 in the GC in Paris

What do you think?

I wish we can devide the stage wins to one let win by peloton and the one won against the peloton.
Anyway jersey should be more then one win. It is fanny how everybody underestimate the Sagan efford for green. It must cost him a lot of energy. And I am sure a lot of you would be pissed of him if he do not go for it and instead he pick up the stage the most suitable for him and the whole team will work just to win this single stage.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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*** the quick said:
Well, it is simply not true that Majka is not able to fight for the GC when he is set as a team leader (3rd in Vuelta 2015, three times in the GC top 10 in Giro). That makes him (in terms of the GT palmares) on par with such riders as, let's say, Kruijswijk, Kelderman, Gesink, Barguil, Bardet, just to mention some of them. Is any of these riders being criticised as much as Majka for not slaving for their leaders? No.

Many of the critisim doesn't come cause Majka is unloyal, although he obviously is. He has proven that in this tour (going for a 3rd place instead of going back for Contador) and last year he did the same on pra loup.

But many who dislike him arent contador fans and i don't dislike him cause he didn't help out Contador.

First of all, the way the guy was celebrating and acting during the tour of 2014 was annoying as hell.

But most importantly, the way he rides. Always trying to wheelsuck and when he rides for a GC he's even worse than Levi. Doesn't do anything, always in the wheels and at least Levi had an ITT to rely on, Majka doesn't.

These are the facts mate ;)
 
Re: Re:

Miburo said:
**** the quick said:
Well, it is simply not true that Majka is not able to fight for the GC when he is set as a team leader (3rd in Vuelta 2015, three times in the GC top 10 in Giro). That makes him (in terms of the GT palmares) on par with such riders as, let's say, Kruijswijk, Kelderman, Gesink, Barguil, Bardet, just to mention some of them. Is any of these riders being criticised as much as Majka for not slaving for their leaders? No.

Many of the critisim doesn't come cause Majka is unloyal, although he obviously is. He has proven that in this tour (going for a 3rd place instead of going back for Contador) and last year he did the same on pra loup.

But many who dislike him arent contador fans and i don't dislike him cause he didn't help out Contador.

First of all, the way the guy was celebrating and acting during the tour of 2014 was annoying as hell.

But most importantly, the way he rides. Always trying to wheelsuck and when he rides for a GC he's even worse than Levi. Doesn't do anything, always in the wheels and at least Levi had an ITT to rely on, Majka doesn't.

These are the facts mate ;)

Seriously? Those are the reasons? The guy is simply not strong enough in the Giro. You dont see all the irrational hate towards Quintana, Mollema, Yates, and countless other riders as steong or stronger than Majka that are even more passive in GTs. Everyone is passive when they are weak. At least Majka tried to put in a couple of diga in Vuelta and had Poljanski set a pace before attacking on his own. It is just a better tactic than making a half-assed 20m attacks when not feeling well, getting pulled back and then dropped.

Or is it all about a single wink to a camera couple of years ago? :)

The guy is more entertaining than 98% of cyclists, attacking 5-6 times per GT (except for Giro which is by far the qorst GT for him looking at both the route and weather), going for stages, KOTM, etc.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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Zakarin was worse than majka this giro, but he tried many times. What's Majka's excuse? This is the 3rd time and it was btw more than a few winks.

Was annoying as hell, just ride your bike. If he would be as agressive as the way he acts, then fine but he ain't no Ricco so just act normal
 
Jul 29, 2012
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You said yourself btw Damian that this giro it'll be different and that if he rode the same way as usual you would be inclined to agree with us. Do I really need to get the quote or you're gonna be a man and admit what you said? ;)
 
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Miburo said:
You said yourself btw Damian that this giro it'll be different and that if he rode the same way as usual you would be inclined to agree with us. Do I really need to get the quote or you're gonna be a man and admit what you said? ;)

I remember the quote. I was wrong about him in the Giro. Now I agree that he will never do anything in that GT. Tinkoff just misused the guy. He should be targeting Vuelta. 2015 was the closest they got to the optimal race schedule for Rafal. He is still an entertaining rider in the Tour and he can get a very good result in Vuelta if he targets that race.
 
Jul 17, 2016
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Miburo said:
Many of the critisim doesn't come cause Majka is unloyal, although he obviously is. He has proven that in this tour (going for a 3rd place instead of going back for Contador) and last year he did the same on pra loup.
He was in the breakaway and stayed in the breakway because the team asked him to. Everything was under control, because Kreuziger was with Contador. We know how that panned out. How do you like Kreuziger?
 
Re:

Miburo said:
Zakarin was worse than majka this giro, but he tried many times. What's Majka's excuse? This is the 3rd time and it was btw more than a few winks.

Was annoying as hell, just ride your bike. If he would be as agressive as the way he acts, then fine but he ain't no Ricco so just act normal

Zakarin was ahead of Majka at the Giro when he crashed out.
 
Tomorrow could go to the break as well. There's no team interested in the stage win. They all know that if a stage win is up for grabs, Froome will do just enough to take it. Only reason I see is Froome wanting to gift a stage to LRP. Otoh, saturday is a big chance for the breakaway as well, but Majka may prefer to attack the stage that finishes on a mountain top.
 
May 17, 2016
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El Pistolero said:
How does this guy have a 39 page thread by the way?
Like him or not, but he achieved more than 90% of professional cyclists.

He's got :
- one GT podium
- a WT race,
- a couple of stage wins in GT,
- 2x KOM jersey inTdF,
- on Giro di Lombardia podium
- one national championships title.

So maybe this is why he recieves some attention here. :cool:
 
Jun 16, 2015
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Can't take away his palmares but the guy comes by as a yabbing, arrogant and insecure beta male making it really hard rooting for him. Despite being a homer I much more prefer seeing out of top shape Kwiatkowski scramble for 11th or Bodnar almost getting a TdF stage as a staple achievement (if Froome wasn't there and needed to be outsprinted by Peto). Hoping Majka will mature and ripen but unlikely to see it happening, same as him winning today's stage while being clearly gassed and having loads of other riders going for the last MTF.
 
Yeah, the dynamics behind worked against him. One of clipping off the front of the chase wouldn't have caught him. Three men mightn't have worked as cohesively.

Majka did great to follow the Italians and Yates on the penultimate downhill.

Great teamwork by Kwiatkowski, too.
 
Since Nibali crashed, I cheered for Majka to take it. Very good ride from him today. I guess his season is over? What do Giro-Tour doublers ever do beside being fodder in races they still ride and I imagine drinking or chilling out or a long while, thinking of the next season
 

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