The Thuringian took five stage wins in the 2017 Tour of France until his retirement on stage 17. Kittel has a total of 14 stage wins on his CV - more than any other German professional cyclist. Despite a lean spring - with just two victories in the Italian long-distance race Tirreno-Adriatico - a stage win is the primary goal of the new Katusha-Alpecin captain this year too. "Like every year, my goal is to win a stage," the Swiss rider explained modestly.
With a victory in the opening stage over 199 kilometres from the Atlantic island of Noirmoutier to Fontenay, the first yellow jersey of this year's Tour beckons for the stage winner. "I rode the last few kilometres. There's a bit of pepper in there, with lots of direction changes at the end and the last 200 to 300 metres uphill," reported Kittel and added: "Yellow is in there, but I don't want to go too far out on a limb." Yellow at the start: The sunny boy from Arnstadt already achieved this in 2013 and 2014.
In recent years, the sprinters have turned the summer theatre of the French into the Tour d'Allemagne. Kittel (14) and André Greipel (11) have won no fewer than 25 stages since 2011. The Rostock-born rider from the Belgian team Lotto Soudal came away empty-handed last year for the first time since his Tour debut seven years ago and wants to recommend himself for a new contract with further successes.
Kittel and Greipel came away empty-handed at the German championships in Einhausen last Sunday. In young Pascal Ackermann's victory, Greipel had to settle for fourth place and Kittel even tenth. At least John Degenkolb was the only Tour participant to sprint onto the podium in second place. For the first time since 2012, you won't find the jersey with the black, red and gold breast ring at the "Grand Loop" - the new German road champion Ackermann was not nominated by the German Bora-hansgrohe racing team.
Kittel and his German team-mates in particular had a lot to talk about after the dress rehearsal in southern Hesse. "Something went wrong in the sprint - Marcel wasn't on my wheel and I didn't see him. We need to talk again about what didn't work," said Kittel's last rider Rick Zabel. In France, the son of former sprint star Erik Zabel, as well as his compatriots Tony Martin and Nils Politt, should help Kittel as the locomotive to the hoped-for stage win.
Degenkolb has not yet written off his first Tour stage win - even though the Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix winner in 2015 is still searching for top form since his serious training accident in 2016. "After six years, it is of course my big dream to finally win my first Tour stage," said the 29-year-old Trek-Segafredo pro. "But I'm trying to take a relatively relaxed approach, if it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out. I feel fresh and in good spirits," added the Thuringian, who lives in Oberusel, who was slowed down for several weeks in the spring by a bursa injury in his knee.
But Kittel & Co. will have to be prepared for some big-name competition in the hunt for stage wins. After his exclusion from last year's Tour, world champion Peter Sagan is hungry for more success on the French tarmac. Australian Michael Matthews from the German Sunweb team wants to defend his green jersey with as many stage wins as possible. Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen, last year's winner of the prestigious final stage in Paris, Colombian Tour newcomer Fernando Gaviria, Frenchman Arnaud Démare and the Tour record stage winner Mark Cavendish from Great Britain, who is still active with 30 daily victories, are also at the top of the contenders.
