Stage seven winner Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano) has made good on his team’s calling to withdraw from the Vuelta a España after twelve stages, and though he exits reluctantly, he is happy with his team’s results so far. The German revelation had hoped to be involved in the bunch sprint on stage twelve, widely thought to be one of the final opportunities for sprinters at the Vuelta. But after admitting fatigue before the stage, Kittel was unable to emulate eventual stage winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), and lost 34 seconds at the line, finishing in 81st position.
“The final run-in to the finish was just too difficult,” team manager Rudi Kemma said after stage twelve. “The team worked very hard, and very well together again, but the road just went up and down too much.”
After some questioned the inclusion of Skil-Shimano in the Vuelta before the race began, the Dutch team has been quietly humble and openly grateful to organizers for allowing the team to race the Spanish grand tour. Kittel paid them all back in stage seven, when he was in front of a pile-up that took out Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) and was the fastest to the line. Team rider Koen de Kort called it the biggest win in the team’s history.
The especially mountainous edition of the Vuelta has tired out Kittel, who was participating in his first grand tour. Skil-Shimano is careful not to put too much on the German too early. “This is entirely to plan,” Kemma explained about Kittel’s withdrawal. “Marcel is still young and will eventually be better off.”
“I was very tired at ten kilometers to go to the finish,” Kittel said after yesterday’s stage. “The team brought me back to the peloton. They really helped me a lot.” Though he made it to the back of the peloton, Kittel was unable to follow his team-mates to the front of the bunch.
“I just was not strong enough to get to the front with the best sprinters,” Kittel said. “I’ve had a wonderful two weeks and I thank the organizers for inviting us. A victory in my first grand tour is unbelievable.”
“I’ll take some rest and then get prepared for the World Championships. I think we can get a medal with Germany.”
While the Skil-Shimano team has spent most of the race riding in the peloton, sheltering their young sprinter, they indicated that their race tactics would change with Kittel headed home.
“We will look for more goals and keep going,” Kemma remarked. “With Johannes Fröhlinger, Simon Geschke, and Alexandre Geniez, we have good things going. We will definitely start to attack.”
The Dutch team came into the Vuelta with high hopes for Geniez in the general classification, especially after the 23-year-old finished second overall at the Tour of Luxembourg. But having lost time early, the Frenchman will join his team-mates in the hunt for glory from a breakaway.