Video: Leadout key as Kittel wins Tour of Britain 2014 opener

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Marcel Kittel won the first stage and race lead at the Tour of Britain Sunday in Liverpool. As always, he gave credit and thanks to his Giant-Shimano teammates. “It is a team job, it is really difficult or actually it is impossible to win if you are alone.”

In a video, Kittel called the closing sprint “pretty hectic, pretty messy with that crash at 1 km before the finish.”

During the race,the team decided to stay on the right side, “and honestly at that little descent just before the last right corner I thought it would be the wrong decision, because we are pretty far in the back and there were not too many gaps where we could move up on the right side.”

However, a crash opened up the appropriate gap. “Tom Veelers had a really nice timing to come just in the right moment to the front to take the last couple of meters in the wind for me so I could save myself a little bit more and then start my sprint.”