Tour de France: Marcel Kittel: Happy end for the cycling action hero?

Marcel Kittel is considered one of the best sprinters at the Tour de France. As so often in his career, he has to fight against adverse circumstances again this year.

It’s torn open. There’s a big hole in the right shoulder blade. The short encounter with the asphalt has given it a brownish colour in many places. The green jersey has certainly had better days at the Tour de France than on this July 19, 2017.

The rider, who last year wore the colour of hope for 13 days at the world’s most famous cycling race, presents himself in a similarly poor condition: The provisional bandage on the right elbow and a gaping wound on the knee give him even more the appearance of Dolph Lundgren – the Hollywood star whose name Marcel Kittel has inherited in jest because of the similar appearance.

In contrast to the film business, however, this July 19th has no happy end for gowns. His fall on the 17th stage from La Mure to Serre-Chevallier ended all hopes of turning green on Paris’ magnificent Champs Elysees boulevard. After stomach problems and a cold had already made his life difficult, the abrasions and bruises finally forced him to give up his gown.

Less than a year later, the 30-year-old is fit again at the Tour de France: At the start he reached third place. Nevertheless, the signs are bad that, like in 2017, he will again clinch five victories until his injury and act as the dominant sprinter. Kittel changed his team for the new year and now drives at Katusha-Alpecin with some German team mates like Rick Zabel, Nils Politt or Tony Martin.

Despite the largely equal nationality in the team, however, the team still doesn’t seem to have found their way. He ratedittel’s seasonal record with two meagre victories in March as mixed and not as successful as usual. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not worried about that,” Kittel said about the unfamiliar dry spell that results mainly from set-up problems on the sprint train.

“We need time and we need to find each other. Rick Zabel and Nils Politt are young and we are trying to build something long-term. I’m not restless,” Kittel explained in an interview with Sportbuzzer. That’s another reason why the German record-breaking winner of the Tour de France has lowered the bar for this season for the time being and has set his sights on a day’s victory.

However, Kittel has not lost sight of the dream of a German professional cyclist’s first green jersey at the Tour de France since Erik Zabel 2001. It would finally be the culmination of a man who hastily developed from a talent to one of the best sprinters in the world.

As the son of a racing cyclist, Kittel quickly came into contact with cycling and won the 2005 and 2006 Junior World Time Trial Championships.

In 2011 he made his breakthrough with 17 victories, the most successful season in the history of cycling for a neoprofessional. One year later Kittel had to give up at his Tour de France debut due to a gastrointestinal infection and knee pain on the fifth stage, but in the following two years he achieved four stage victories and finally established himself as the world’s best sprinter.

This year would not be the first time that this world’s best sprinter has come back stronger after a setback. In 2015, Kittel was not even nominated for the Tour de France. He was infected with a virus for a long time and didn’t get fit in time. Thus he could not confirm his strong status in cycling and had to fight back first.

Kittel drew the right conclusions. “After this extremely disappointing year, I decided for myself to change many things,” he says about this sobering time. The 30-year-old changed his training, avoided public appointments and vowed “no more compromises”.

In addition, Kittel changed teams, fought his way back to the top and drove his best Tour de France to date in 2017 – until he had to give up because of the crash. After changing teams again this year, he started the big loop in third place; so far he has not yet had the opportunity to wear out the green jersey.