Marcel Kittel kicked off his 2017 season with a victory on the opening stage of the Dubai Tour, celebrating a repeat of his successful season debut in last year's race.
The powerful German finished off the excellent work of his Quick-Step Floors lead-out train on the edge of the Palm Jumeirah as he did last year. This first win of the new season, however, was different to 2016.
Kittel was not looking for redemption this time, with his problems at Giant-Alpecin already buried firmly in the past. This time he also won using a disc brake-equipped bike, becoming only the second rider in history to win on the new road technology, after his teammate Tom Boonen's victory in the Vuelta a San Juan.
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"There's obviously one more year between them, but also one extra year of racing for me," Kittel explained in his winner's press conference.
"I see it as a process. When I came to Etixx last year, the Dubai Tour was like the world Championships to me. I wanted to come back and prove myself in the team. That's still the same motivation this season, but it's a different feeling. Now I know everyone in the team. Now we've won races together in 2016, we've had good and hard times, too. Having a full season in my legs gives me a different start to 2017."
Kittel rightly praised his teammates for their textbook lead-out. Dimension Data had dragged the peloton along for the final five kilometres, but Quick-Step Floors came late and came fast, taking Kittel up to the front and lining out the peloton in the final kilometre. Kittel's rivals could only follow in his slipstream when he opened up his sprint in sight of the line. Kittel win by more than bike length and had plenty of time to celebrate his first win of 2017.
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