Elbow injury forces Rafał Majka out of Volta a Catalunya

Rafał Majka has been forced out of Tinkoff-Saxo’s line-up for Volta a Catalunya. Spanish race starts on Monday but Polish climber won’t make a start, as he is still recovering from injuries sustained during last stage of Paris-Nice.

Majka managed to get through a week of racing in France unscratached, avoiding pile-ups and crashes on descents that excluded Geraint Thomas from fight for overall victory. 24-year-old, however, crashed in the last kilometer of the final stage, hitting the deck alongside world champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), suffering bruises, scratches and hurting his elbow. Despite early reports saying that the injury is not serious, today the team decided to withdraw him from race line-up.

Rafal is in good shape and had just done 4.5 hours of training yesterday but the pain from a swollen elbow makes it impossible for him to participate in a very demanding race such as Volta a Catalunya. He’s replaced by our young and coming climber, Jesper Hansen who has already shown good form this season. I don’t expect him to fill out Rafa’s shoes. Jesper is only 23 years old and this is his rookie year as a full-time professional but I know he will do his very best to fulfill our expectations

– Tinkoff-Saxo DS, Philippe Mauduit explained in press release.

Majka, whose primary objective this year is Giro d’Italia, has so far participated in only two races – Volta ao Algarve and Paris-Nice. With only Tour de Romandie remaining on his schedule before Italian Grand Tour, he will probably head to Belfast with around 20 racing days in his legs.

In Catalunya Tinkoff-Saxo tam will be lead by Spaniard Alberto Contador. 33-year-old will be supported by Jesper Hansen, Chris Anker Sørensen, Jesus Hernandez, Sergio Paulinho, Bruno Pires, Rory Sutherland and Paweł Poljański.

photo credit: Official profile of Rafał Majka on Facebook