Tour de France: If you give up you can go home, says Kittel

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Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) looking relaxed at the start of stage 4(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Marcel Kittel half-threw, half-placed his bike against the Katusha-Alpecin bus when he arrived back after stage 4 of the Tour de France, as if he wanted to unleash his fury but suddenly thought better of it. The German had placed fifth, and while the frustration was clear to see, there wasn’t quite enough to warrant damaging an €8,000 piece of equipment.

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Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.