Team Sky raced hard on the second day in the Pyrenees as Vasil Kiryienka hit out in the break on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
Majka doubles up with stage win
Team Sky raced hard on the second day in the Pyrenees as Vasil Kiryienka hit out in the break on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
The Belarusian spent a second day in succession off the front with a spirited attack which saw him tackle the Col de Peyresourde and the Col de Val-Louron-Azet solo ahead of a motivated breakaway.
With team-mate David Lopez in the move behind, Kiryienka managed to carve out a gap in excess of two minutes in the mountains but was eventually reeled back in at the summit of the penultimate climb.
The stage was decided on the
hors-categorie ramp of Saint-Lary Pla d’Adet and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) emerged with a second success of the race to not only win but put his stamp on the polka dot jersey.
The Polish rider jumped clear of the break on the final climb and dropped nearest rival Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) to win the stage by 29 seconds with the peloton closing in. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) was the next man home to further extend his advantage in the yellow jersey to 5:26.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) dug deep to limit his losses on the steep final ramps to hang on to second overall, but it was the fight for third which saw the closest finish. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r-La Mondiale) now sits just eight seconds behind compatriot Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr) with just four days to go.
Mikel Nieve was the lead Team Sky finisher on the day, the Basque rider spending much of the stage in the yellow jersey group before eventually coming home 16th.
Drag race
At 124.5km the stage was the shortest of the race but ranked among the Tour’s toughest with a rapid start out of Saint-Gaudens and 50.2km covered in the opening hour.
As an initial group of attackers went clear Katusha rode hard to chase the break with the mountain’s jersey on their mind for Joaquim Rodriguez.
As the race began to close back up both Lopez and Geraint Thomas jumped on the counter-move on the Col du Portillon to hit the front. The race situation quickly evolved as Thomas slipped back but Kiryienka powered to the fore, eventually chipping clear on the Peyresourde.
