Marcel Kittel

Marcel Kittel (born 11 May 1988) is a German former racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2011 and 2019 for the, and  squads. As a junior, he specialised in time trials, even winning a bronze medal in the World Championships for cyclists aged under 23. When he became a professional in 2011, he specialised in bunch sprints, winning 19 stages across the three Grand Tours, and taking 89 wins in his professional career.

After retirement, he works as an ambassador for Endura and ROSE Bikes.

2011 season
Kittel made his professional debut in 2011 with the Dutch team. Known as a time trial specialist at the time, he won a bunch sprint during the Tour de Langkawi. After the success he decided to become a sprinter. He then won four out of five stages in the Four Days of Dunkirk, all in bunch sprints. Kittel won his first World Tour stage, winning the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne, a race where he also won three other stages. He also made his Grand Tour debut in the Vuelta a España, where he won the seventh stage beating Peter Sagan and Óscar Freire. He finished the season off by winning two stages at the Herald Sun Tour. Kittel became the second most winning rider in 2011 - with 17 wins.

2012 season
Kittel made his Tour de France debut in 2012 when he was selected as leader of his team, where he would compete for stage wins and the green jersey. However he withdrew an hour into stage 5, after suffering from a viral infection of the stomach and intestines from stage 2, the fourth retirement of the 2012 Tour. He bounced back at the beginning of August, when he won the first stage of the Eneco Tour, the first event in his return to racing. The only rider who was competitive with him in the final bunch sprint was Frenchman Arnaud Démare. After bad luck struck on stage 3, where he suffered a flat tyre with 5 km to go, Kittel prevailed again on stage 4. He congratulated his teammates Tom Veelers and John Degenkolb for their work in the final kilometres, as they sheltered him from the wind before he propelled himself toward the finish line and the victory. At the end of 2012, as the cycling world was affected by the Lance Armstrong doping case revelations, Kittel took a vocal anti-doping stance by stating that he was "sick" of the people who still defended Armstrong in the cycling community.

2013 season
In 2013, Kittel's team was promoted to the first division of the sport and was granted World Tour status. Kittel won the first stage of the Tour of Oman in a sprint finish, his first success of the season. In the Tour de France, Kittel found success as a sprinter. He finished first in the Tour's first stage in Corsica and took the first maillot jaune of the 100th Tour de France. He lost the yellow jersey the next day, however, to Jan Bakelants of. Kittel was not done in this Tour, though, he would go on to win the 10th and 12th stages. On the final stage, Kittel triumphed again on the Champs-Élysées, ending the four-year winning streak of rider Mark Cavendish. He would finish 4th in the Green Jersey points standings.

2014 season
Kittel started the 2014 season early by winning the Down Under Classic, followed by three consecutive stage wins at the Dubai Tour. On the third stage, he survived two short climbs near the end of the race and won the sprint of a greatly reduced group. In April he won the Scheldeprijs for the third time in a row, the first rider to achieve this. In the Giro d'Italia, Kittel won stages 2 and 3 in Belfast and Dublin respectively, but abandoned the race before it reached Italian soil. As he did in 2013, Kittel won the opening stage at the Tour de France and took the yellow jersey, but lost it to Vincenzo Nibali on stage 2. However, Kittel won both stages 3 and 4. He also won the final stage 21 on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, as he did in 2013. In September, Kittel won the opening stage of the Tour of Britain by outsprinting Nicola Ruffoni and Mark Cavendish. He also won the closing stage.

2015 season
In January, Kittel won the Down Under Classic in Australia for the second year in a row. By the end of April, he had competed in only two UCI races: the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Qatar. He failed to participate in any sprints in those races, as he was plagued by a virus. He returned to competition in May in the Tour de Yorkshire, but he dropped out after riding 100 km in the first stage. He was supposed to make another comeback at the Tour of California but he withdrew days before the event, citing illness once again. He did ride the Ster ZLM Toer, but could not finish in the top 10 of a stage. At the end of June, it was announced that Kittel would not participate in the Tour de France, since his condition was not up to par. "Not being nominated [for the Tour] is without doubt the most difficult time of my career," said Kittel a day after his non-selection was made public.

Etixx–Quick-Step (2016–17)
In October 2015, it was announced that he had signed a two-year deal with from 2016, after  released him from his contract a year early.

2016 season
At the Dubai Tour, his first race of the season, he won two stages, the overall classification as well as the points classification. He carried on his successes to the Portuguese race Volta ao Algarve, winning stage 1 by a significant margin over André Greipel. He also won stage 4 and the points classification jersey.

2017 season
Kittel won five stages in the Tour de France, bringing his total of Tour de France stage victories to fourteen.

2018 season
For the third year in a row, he chose to start his season at the Dubai Tour, but was unable to win any stages. Kittel took two wins in the 2018 season, both of which came at Tirreno–Adriatico.

2019 season
Kittel started the 2019 season strongly, winning the Trofeo Palma, part of the Challenge Mallorca, and taking second place at the Clásica de Almería. He pulled out of the Tour of California and the Tour de Yorkshire before the races started, citing health issues. On 9 May 2019, his contract with was terminated. This was a mutual decision by the team management and Kittel, who opted to take time off from professional cycling because of fatigue.

Kittel announced his retirement from professional cycling on 23 August 2019.

Major results
Source:


 * 2004
 * 1st MaillotAllemania.svg Road race, National Novice Road Championships


 * 2005
 * 1st Jersey rainbow chrono.svg Time trial, UCI Junior Road World Championships
 * 2nd Time trial, National Junior Road Championships


 * 2006
 * 1st Jersey rainbow chrono.svg Time trial, UCI Junior Road World Championships
 * National Junior Road Championships
 * 1st MaillotAllemania.svg Time trial
 * 1st MaillotAllemania.svg Team time trial
 * 1st Stage 3a (ITT) Trofeo Karlsberg


 * 2007
 * 1st MaillotAllemania.svg Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships
 * 1st Stage 4 Brandenburg Rundfahrt


 * 2008
 * 1st Grosser Silber-Pils Preiss
 * 1st Memorial Davide Fardelli
 * 2nd Overall Brandenburg Rundfahrt
 * 1st Stage 5


 * 2009
 * 1st UEC Champion Jersey.svg Time trial, UEC European Under-23 Road Championships
 * 1st Stage 6 Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23
 * 4th Time trial, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
 * 4th Neuseen Classics
 * 6th La Côte Picarde
 * 7th Overall Flèche du Sud
 * 1st Stages 1 & 3
 * 8th Overall Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux
 * 9th Overall Tour du Haut-Anjou
 * 1st Stage 4


 * 2010
 * 1st MaillotAllemania.svg Time trial, National Under-23 Road Championships
 * Tour de Moselle
 * 1st Stages 2 & 4
 * 2nd Overall Mainfranken-Tour
 * 3rd Bronze medal uci.svg Time trial, UCI Under-23 Road World Championships
 * 3rd Overall Festningsrittet
 * 1st Stage 2
 * 3rd Memorial Davide Fardelli


 * 2011
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Delta Tour Zeeland
 * 1st Stage 1
 * 1st ProRace Berlin
 * 1st Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
 * 1st Münsterland Giro
 * 1st Amstel Curaçao Race
 * Four Days of Dunkirk
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1, 2, 3 & 5
 * Tour de Pologne
 * 1st Stages 1, 2, 3 & 7
 * Herald Sun Tour
 * 1st Stages 3 & 5
 * 1st Stage 3 Tour de Langkawi
 * 1st Stage 7 Vuelta a España
 * 2nd Rund um Köln
 * 3rd Trofeo Palma de Mallorca
 * 6th Trofeo Cala Millor


 * 2012
 * 1st Scheldeprijs
 * 1st Omloop van het Houtland
 * 1st Münsterland Giro
 * Ster ZLM Toer
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1 & 4
 * Eneco Tour
 * 1st Stages 1 & 4
 * Tour of Oman
 * 1st Stages 3 & 6
 * Tour de l'Eurométropole
 * 1st Stages 2 & 3
 * 1st Stage 2 Three Days of De Panne
 * 1st Stage 2 Étoile de Bessèges
 * 2nd Handzame Classic
 * 3rd Grand Prix de Fourmies
 * 7th Grand Prix Impanis-Van Petegem


 * 2013
 * 1st Jersey yellow.svg Overall Tour de Picardie
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1 & 3
 * 1st Scheldeprijs
 * 1st Omloop van het Houtland
 * 1st ProRace Berlin
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 1, 10, 12 & 21
 * Held Jersey yellow.svg after Stage 1
 * Held Jersey green.svg after Stages 1 & 2
 * Tour of Turkey
 * 1st Stages 1, 7 & 8
 * 1st Stage 2 Paris–Nice
 * 1st Stage 1 Tour of Oman
 * 6th Overall Ster ZLM Toer
 * 1st Stage 2


 * 2014
 * 1st Down Under Classic
 * 1st Scheldeprijs
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 1, 3, 4 & 21
 * Held Jersey yellow.svg & Jersey green.svg after Stage 1
 * Giro d'Italia
 * 1st Stages 2 & 3
 * Held Jersey red.svg after Stages 2 & 3
 * Tour of Britain
 * 1st Stages 1 & 8b
 * 1st Stage 1 Ster ZLM Toer
 * 5th Overall Three Days of De Panne
 * 6th Overall Dubai Tour
 * 1st Jersey red.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 2, 3 & 4
 * 6th Vattenfall Cyclassics


 * 2015
 * 1st Down Under Classic
 * Tour de Pologne
 * 1st Jersey white.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stage 1
 * 6th Rund um Köln


 * 2016
 * 1st Gold medal uci.svg Team time trial, UCI Road World Championships
 * 1st Jersey blue.svg Overall Dubai Tour
 * 1st Jersey red.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1 & 4
 * 1st Scheldeprijs
 * 1st Grand Prix de Fourmies
 * Giro d'Italia
 * 1st Stages 2 & 3
 * Held Jersey pink.svg after Stage 3
 * Held Jersey red.svg after Stages 2–6
 * Volta ao Algarve
 * 1st Jersey green.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1 & 4
 * 1st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie
 * 1st Stage 3a Three Days of De Panne
 * 1st Stage 4 Tour de France
 * 3rd Road race, National Road Championships


 * 2017
 * 1st Jersey blue.svg Overall Dubai Tour
 * 1st Jersey red.svg Points classification
 * 1st Stages 1, 2 & 5
 * 1st Scheldeprijs
 * Tour de France
 * 1st Stages 2, 6, 7, 10 & 11
 * Held Jersey green.svg after Stages 2–3 & 7–16
 * 1st Stage 1 Tour of California
 * 1st Stage 2 Abu Dhabi Tour
 * 1st Stage 3a Three Days of De Panne
 * 1st Stage 4 Ster ZLM Toer
 * 4th Münsterland Giro


 * 2018
 * Tirreno–Adriatico
 * 1st Stages 2 & 6
 * 5th Rund um Köln


 * 2019
 * 1st Trofeo Palma
 * 2nd Clásica de Almería