Marcel Kittel
.jpg)
Kittel at the 2015 Tour Down Under
|
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Marcel Kittel |
| Born |
11 May 1988 Arnstadt, East Germany |
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Weight | 86 kg (190 lb; 13.5 st) |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Quick-Step Floors |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Sprinter |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| 2007–2010 | Thüringer Energie Team |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 2011–2015 | Skil–Shimano |
| 2016– | Etixx–Quick-Step |
| Major wins | |
|
|
|
Medal record
|
|
Marcel Kittel (born 11 May 1988) is a German racing cyclist, who rides for Quick-Step Floors. As a junior, he specialised in time trials, even winning a bronze medal in the World Championships for cyclists aged under 23. When he became a professional in 2011, he specialised in bunch sprints, and he has won stages in each of the three Grand Tours.
Kittel made his professional debut in 2011 with the Dutch team Skil–Shimano. Known as a time trial specialist at the time, he won a bunch sprint during the Tour de Langkawi. After the success he decided to become a sprinter. He won then four out of five stages in Four Days of Dunkirk - all in bunch sprints. Kittel won his first World Tour stage, winning the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne, a race where he also won three other stages and the points classification. He also made his Grand Tour debut in the Vuelta a España, where he won the seventh stage beating Peter Sagan and Óscar Freire. He finished the season off by winning two stages at the Herald Sun Tour. Kittel became the second most winning rider in 2011 - winning 17 races and stages.
Kittel made his Tour de France debut in 2012 when he was selected as leader of his team, where he would compete for stage wins and the green jersey. However he withdrew an hour into stage 5, after suffering from a viral infection of the stomach and intestines from stage 2, the fourth retirement of the 2012 Tour. He bounced back in the beginning of August, when he won the first stage of the Eneco Tour, the first event in his return to racing. The only rider who was competitive with him in the final bunch sprint was Frenchman Arnaud Démare (FDJ–BigMat). After bad luck struck on stage 3, where he suffered a flat tyre with 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) to go, Kittel prevailed again on stage 4. He congratulated his teammates Tom Veelers and John Degenkolb for their work in the final kilometres, as they sheltered him from the wind before he propelled himself toward the finish line and the victory. At the end of 2012, as the cycling world was affected by the Lance Armstrong doping case revelations, Kittel took a vocal anti-doping stance by stating that he was "sick" of the people who still defended Armstrong in the cycling community.
...
Wikipedia