German Marcel Kittel has just become part his new Team Katusha Alpecin family and he is already making his first debut at the Dubai Tour. And of course, who has more reasons to compete on this tour than the two-time champion?
Kittel, 29, left his Quick-Step Floors family to enter a new one this season. However, he’s definitely keeping his high hopes untouched and expects to achieve nothing less in his new squad. Same goes for Elia Viviani who left Team Sky after terminating his contract to take Kittel’s spot at Quick-Steps Floors.
A sight we have waited a long time to see, 2018’s Dubai Tour is underway!#DubaiTour pic.twitter.com/4JEidLmPND
— Dubai Tour (@dubaitour) February 6, 2018
“It would be nice to get already a victory here. But under the circumstances now, changing teams, being for the first time together here in the race.. That’s something where I say ‘okay, let’s just see what happens, concentrate, be focused, we are well-prepared, we trained good and we are motivated and we want to try our best and see what it is worth at the end’,” the 14-time Tour de France and 8-time Dubai Tour stage winner Kittel said yesterday.
A great time with the new family
Kittel also said that so far, things with the new squad have gone great and he is actually really enjoying the time spent with his new teammates, mostly because there already are several of them who speak German.
“It’s a little bit sad sometimes when you leave a team. But it’s also a nice thing if you come into a new group of people. You’re also challenged again, you have maybe slightly different goals but you’re just going into the year with a different motivation,” Kittel told the reporters.
“And that’s what happened to me and I’m sure it happened to other riders that changed teams this year. We’ve had a very good winter, a very short one actually – at least it felt that way for me – and now we’re here in Dubai. We’re motivated to see where we stand as a group in the lead-out, on the sprint, and that’s the first test for us.”
Not long now!
Join us tomorrow for the start of 2018’s Dubai Tour and witness the battle amongst the peloton’s fastest riders to secure the Circle of Stars this year.#DubaiTour pic.twitter.com/MqtESrXVnY— Dubai Tour (@dubaitour) February 5, 2018
