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| Marcel Kittel ready for Tour de France speed battle with Mark Cavendish | Marcel Kittel ready for Tour de France speed battle with Mark Cavendish |
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| The first road-race stage of the Tour de France has been billed as the first showdown in an intriguing battle between two contrasting talents: last year’s top Tour sprinter Marcel Kittel – tall, quietly spoken, German – and the man he deposed as the No1 fast man, Mark Cavendish – short, motor-mouthed, Manx. | The first road-race stage of the Tour de France has been billed as the first showdown in an intriguing battle between two contrasting talents: last year’s top Tour sprinter Marcel Kittel – tall, quietly spoken, German – and the man he deposed as the No1 fast man, Mark Cavendish – short, motor-mouthed, Manx. |
| For five Tours, from 2008 to 2012, Cavendish ruled supreme but last year, for the first time, he came up against someone who was consistently faster in the finishing straight: Kittel landed four bunch sprints to Cavendish’s one, with the Manxman adding a second from a breakaway on stage six. | |
| The stage over Buttertubs and Grinton Moor into Harrogate has an extra edge to it, because with no prologue time trial, the yellow jersey is up for grabs, but when it comes to winning the first road stage of a major Tour, Kittel has form. Last year, in Corsica, he emerged from the chaos as the finish-line location was changed twice at the end of the stage to take the first maillot jaune, while in Belfast this May in the Giro d’Italia’s second stage after an opening team time trial, he put in a repeat performance to pull on the pink jersey. | The stage over Buttertubs and Grinton Moor into Harrogate has an extra edge to it, because with no prologue time trial, the yellow jersey is up for grabs, but when it comes to winning the first road stage of a major Tour, Kittel has form. Last year, in Corsica, he emerged from the chaos as the finish-line location was changed twice at the end of the stage to take the first maillot jaune, while in Belfast this May in the Giro d’Italia’s second stage after an opening team time trial, he put in a repeat performance to pull on the pink jersey. |
| “I’ve seen the first two stages in Yorkshire, the one [on Sunday] to Sheffield is definitely very, very difficult, very nervous with small roads and a lot of up and down,” he says. “The first stage is easier, but not too easy. I was expecting the climbs to be easier, but it could be really tough, so there might be a surprise at the end. If it’s a hard race, it will be good for [team-mate] John Degenkolb. The important thing for me is that we have a team that gives us possibilities in both stages.” | “I’ve seen the first two stages in Yorkshire, the one [on Sunday] to Sheffield is definitely very, very difficult, very nervous with small roads and a lot of up and down,” he says. “The first stage is easier, but not too easy. I was expecting the climbs to be easier, but it could be really tough, so there might be a surprise at the end. If it’s a hard race, it will be good for [team-mate] John Degenkolb. The important thing for me is that we have a team that gives us possibilities in both stages.” |
| Degenkolb is Kittel’s foil, the man to whom the Giant-Shimano team turn when the going gets a little tough for their six-foot sprinter, who describes his interests on his Twitter feed as “speed, sprinting, and hair”. Elegantly coiffed and, more importantly, an articulate advocate of anti-doping, the hope is that he can become a new poster boy for German cycling, which has been in the doldrums since drugs revelations about the T-Mobile squad and Jan Ullrich’s disgrace. | Degenkolb is Kittel’s foil, the man to whom the Giant-Shimano team turn when the going gets a little tough for their six-foot sprinter, who describes his interests on his Twitter feed as “speed, sprinting, and hair”. Elegantly coiffed and, more importantly, an articulate advocate of anti-doping, the hope is that he can become a new poster boy for German cycling, which has been in the doldrums since drugs revelations about the T-Mobile squad and Jan Ullrich’s disgrace. |
| He describes his relationship with Cavendish as “respectful, but we aren’t close friends. We chat, but we don’t meet for coffee and cakes, and I don’t kiss him on the cheek when we say hello. He has a strong team, but I’m very confident about my boys – it will be a big battle. I haven’t raced much with Mark this year, so I don’t know how he will be. I’m expecting him to be very good. | He describes his relationship with Cavendish as “respectful, but we aren’t close friends. We chat, but we don’t meet for coffee and cakes, and I don’t kiss him on the cheek when we say hello. He has a strong team, but I’m very confident about my boys – it will be a big battle. I haven’t raced much with Mark this year, so I don’t know how he will be. I’m expecting him to be very good. |
| “What we have in common is a very strong team” - Kittel relies on the Dutchman Tom Veelers for the final leadout, while Roy Curvers captains the squad on the road - “but the difference between us is that he’s perhaps not as strong as me when it comes to pure power output.” | “What we have in common is a very strong team” - Kittel relies on the Dutchman Tom Veelers for the final leadout, while Roy Curvers captains the squad on the road - “but the difference between us is that he’s perhaps not as strong as me when it comes to pure power output.” |
| That means the pair sprint differently, with Kittel producing a high, sustained speed and more gradual acceleration, while Cavendish relies on the leg speed he gets from track racing, on a higher cadence, and his innate sense of where to position himself, while his smaller profile makes him more aerodynamic than his rivals. “He has no need of [the extra power],”reflects Kittel. “I use my strength in a sprint, he uses his position on the bike, his head in front of the stem, he’s really low down.” | That means the pair sprint differently, with Kittel producing a high, sustained speed and more gradual acceleration, while Cavendish relies on the leg speed he gets from track racing, on a higher cadence, and his innate sense of where to position himself, while his smaller profile makes him more aerodynamic than his rivals. “He has no need of [the extra power],”reflects Kittel. “I use my strength in a sprint, he uses his position on the bike, his head in front of the stem, he’s really low down.” |
| Kittel made an immediate impact on the Giro, winning stages two and three, but then withdrew with illness after the race arrived back in Italy. Since then, he has spent time training at altitude in the Sierra Nevada, and returned to racing at the ZLM Toer in Holland, winning stage one. “I feel pretty confident I’ll be as good as I was last year, and that’s what matters,” he says. “We will see who is best. It will be the race of truth.” | Kittel made an immediate impact on the Giro, winning stages two and three, but then withdrew with illness after the race arrived back in Italy. Since then, he has spent time training at altitude in the Sierra Nevada, and returned to racing at the ZLM Toer in Holland, winning stage one. “I feel pretty confident I’ll be as good as I was last year, and that’s what matters,” he says. “We will see who is best. It will be the race of truth.” |