Having used his team to control the first flat part of the stage, Joaquim Rodriguez had set his sights on the mountains jersey in today's queen stage of the Tour de France. However, the Spaniard lost the battle against Rafal Majka and openly admits that he had been up against a stronger rider.

With the yellow jersey seemingly impossible to wrestle away from race leader Vincenzo Nibail (Astana), the ‘races within the race’ are still up for grabs, including the polka dot jersey of the best climber. Team Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez has worn the jersey in this year’s race and definitely wanted to wear it again in Paris on Sunday.

"I tried to do my best today and get as many points as possible. During the stage I tried to stay at a regular pace in the climbs because it suited me well. And I did manage to get some points, but on the final climb when Majka attacked, I could not follow him. Anyway, I thank my team who did a very good job for me today," said Joaquim Rodriguez.

Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) started the stage 1 point ahead of Rodriguez and battled with the Katusha rider on the day’s climbs. In the end Majka was able to claim the stage win, taking 50-points for the HC climb of Pla d’Adet and keeping the polka dot jersey for now.

Stage 17 brought both the shortest stage at 125 km and the toughest with three category 1 climbs along the route from Saint-Gaudens to Pla d’Adet, making for a difficult and demanding Queen stage of climbing. An original break of 8 men went clear with Team Katusha on the front to control the gap. Rodriguez positioned himself and bridged across to the group so he could collect points toward the climber’s jersey. On the first climb of the Col du Portillon, ‘Purito’ Rodriguez picked up the maximum points and moved into the virtual polka dot jersey. By the second climb, the Col de Peyresourde, Vasil Kiryienka (Sky) had attacked his group and managed to be up and over the top in first position. Rodriguez came across fourth, still able to pick up a few climbing points. The scene was almost repeated again on the final category 1 climb, the Col de Val Louron, this time with Kiryienka brought back just before the top of the climb and Rodriguez out-sprinting Majka to take maximum points.

But the last climb and the 50 points was on the radar for Rafal Majka. He put in his final attack with 2,4 km to go and kept a 29-second gap to Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) all the way to the finish line, marking his second stage win in this year’s Tour. Race leader Nibali was third at 46-seconds. Nibali widened his lead yet again and now holds 5.26 to Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and six minutes to Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr.) For Team Katusha the best placed rider remains Iurii Trofimov in 14th place on the general classification.

"I am happy with our team, who did a good race in the beginning for Joaquim and helped him to go in the break. Purito was active the entire race and he fought until the end. It was a nice battle but in the final climb Majka was just stronger. Joaquim is still on his way to finding top condition and we are happy he tried to do something in this race," team director Torsten Schmidt said.

There is still more climbing – and a lot more climbing points - on the final day in the Pyrenees on Thursday. Stage 18 at 145,5 km is from Pau to Hautacam and includes the HC Col du Tourmalet midway through the day and then the last uphill finish in the Tour – the HC climb to Hautacam.