Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
A tired Marcel Kittel collects himself at the finish(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Marcel Kittel on the start line(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Marcel Kittel gets an assist from press officer Nier Falk(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Marcel Kittel (Katusha Alpecin)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Marcel Kittel returns home from the Dubai Tour without a stage victory, and knows that his new Katusha-Alpecin lead-out train still has work to do if it wants to compete against Quick-Step Floors and Dimension Data in the high-speed sprint finishes.
The German finished sixth in the final sprint on stage 5, hampered by Nacer Bouhanni's late crash and unable to close the gap on the riders who avoided the spill, a group which included his teammates Marco Haller and Rick Zabel. Kittel could only watch, however, as Elia Viviani (Quick-Step) managed to recoup the ground to win the final stage ahead of Haller and wrap up overall victory.
Kittel dominated the last two editions of the Dubai Tour with Quick-Step Floors, winning four stages and claiming the overall classification on each occasion. This year his lead-out is still under construction. While some of his teammates let their anger and frustration show, Kittel kept his cool and showed his class after every sprint. He is focused on learning from any mistakes so he can quickly start winning in his new colours.
Kittel and his teammates used the ride back to the team hotel to talk and reflect on the sprint, and he shared his thoughts afterwards.
"Everybody was disappointed that we couldn't go for a good result today," Kittel admitted.
"I think the critical point was that last corner where the crash happened. No team was complete and that also happened to us. Then as soon as the crash came, everyone was messed up again and we could only try to find a good way to make it to the finish line. But that was very difficult.
"I tried to go as good as I could but Marco [Haller] and Rick [Zabel] were in front and were thinking I wasn't there after the crash and wanted to save a good result. In the end that didn't happen. Second [with Haller – ed.] is not a bad result but we had a victory as the plan today."
Kittel will return to the Gulf for the Abu Dhabi Tour, which starts on February 21. He is convinced that his sprint team will have learnt from any mistakes by then and be far more successful.
"It's a moment to learn and also to grow as a team. That was the main goal of this Dubai Tour," Kittel said, trying to find his glass half full at the end of the five-day event. "We have things to discuss after this race but I really believe it will make us stronger."
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
