Cycling: Tirreno-Adriatico: Second stage win for Marcel Kittel

For top sprinter Marcel Kittel, the spring classic Milan-Sanremo can come. Arnstadt celebrated his second stage victory at the bike stage race Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday. The 29-year-old newcomer of the Katusha-Alpecin team won the sixth and penultimate section over 153 kilometres from Numana to Fano and prevailed as last Thursday in the sprint ahead of world champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia) of the German Bora-hansgrohe team.

“The boys did a great job,”said Marcel Kittel,”I’m so proud of the team, there’s nothing to complain about. We controlled the race.”

In the overall standings Michal Kwiatkowski, who took over the blue jersey of the front runner the day before, continues to lead. The world champion of 2014 has another three seconds advantage over the Italian Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing). 23 seconds back, the Spaniard Mikel Landa (Movistar) follows in third place. The decision about the overall victory will be made on Tuesday in the 10.1-kilometre individual time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto.

Marcel Kittel is only the third German cycling professional to win more than one stage at Tirreno-Adriatico. Previously, only Gregor Braun (2) and Erik Zabel (7) had succeeded. His son Rick finished tenth in the victory of Kittel at the same time.

At the beginning of the week, however, Peter Sagan was the winner of the hearts. The 28-year-old star of the industry, world champion three times in a row from 2015 to 2017, was held up by a mass fall eight kilometres before the finish line. Sagan was able to keep himself safe with luck and started a chase to catch up on his own.

Two kilometres from the finish line and after clever tactical manoeuvres, he was back in the lead group and ready for the sprint. There, however, he found his master in Kittel as he did on Thursday. However, Sagan in this form is also one of the great contenders for victory at the “Primavera” on Saturday.