German sprinter Marcel Kittel is optimistic that he can bounce back to winning ways after a disastrous 2018 season that saw him win just two sprints in March, with his Katusha-Alpecin squad taking just five wins during the whole of the season.
Medical tests ruled out any kind of virus but, in agreement with his team, Kittel ended his season in early September to rest up, reset and try to get back to his best.
Kittel was signed for the 2018 season as the blond-haired poster boy for Katusha-Alpecin as they looked to transform from being a Russian-backed set-up to a global WorldTour squad able to attract major sponsors and international riders.
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A new lead-out train was built and developed during training camps, but then rarely seemed to work in races. Other teams were better and faster, or Kittel lost wheels, lacked speed and the aggression to fight for position in the ever-more hectic sprint finishes. He and the team seemed to enter a demoralising downward spiral that was impossible to stop.
Kittel won two stages at Tirreno-Adriatico in March, but that turned out to be the high-point of his season. He was third behind Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the first sprint at the Tour de France, but his race petered out thereafter. He finished outside the time limit in the Alps, like many of his fellow sprinters, and never got his season back on track.
Criticism by directeur sportif Dimitri Konyshev in an interview with L'Equipe caused as much tension as the lack of results. Konyshev described Kittel as "egotistical", saying: "We pay him a lot of money but he is only interested in himself.:
Back to basics
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/kittel-im-trying-to-live-like-a-monk-so-i-can-get-back-to-my-best
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