Marcel Kittel says that he’s ready to strike back in 2016 after a season marred by illness as he heads towards his debut with his new team Etixx-QuickStep. Kittel had just 32 race days in 2015 and claimed just two victories at the People's Choice Down Under Classic and a stage at the Tour de Pologne.
The parting of ways with Giant-Alpecin, a team that he’d been at since he turned professional in 2011, added to what was already a challenging season. Happy in his new surroundings, he’s raring to go when it all kicks off at his first race.
“Of course I want to strike back,” he told Cyclingnews at the team’s Calpe training camp. “I’ve been five years with my old team. It’s a long time but nobody said that it would be forever like this. I’m sad that it developed that way. It’s now a new challenge for me and I’m really happy with the way that things are going at the moment.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Kittel will be taking Mark Cavendish's spot as the team’s star sprinter but he is adamant that he is there in his own right and not a replacement. “I think it’s not about comparing each other,” Kittel said. “It’s the same situation when a new sprinter comes up and he’s the new Kittel, Cavendish or Greipel. You’re just yourself and you go your own way and that’s the same way. I’m not a replacement for Cavendish. The team is also the team and has its own character. I want to make everything fit as much as possible.”
During the media day at the Etixx-QuickStep training camp, Kittel was unsurprisingly a rider in demand being pulled hither and tither by the journalists that had descended on the seaside town of Calpe. While he is keen to make up for the disappointments of 2015 he was reluctant to talk too much about his ambitions. He did however reveal his schedule. His start at the Dubai Tour was already well publicised but to that he will also add the Volta ao Algarve and Paris-Nice. He also plans to do both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, where he hopes to take another yellow jersey.
“I have my goals for 2016 and I really want to achieve them and see what is possible with a new challenge,” he said.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1Oibjdy
No comments:
Post a Comment