These are the reasons for the bankruptcy of Kittel

After eleven stages, the tour ends for Marcel Kittel. Last year, the Super Sprinter delighted German fans with five wins. Now he has to start the return journey without success. t-online has its reasons.

When Marcel Kittel crossed the finish line of the eleventh stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday, he was struck by the efforts of the previous 108.5 kilometers in the Alps. In the end, the winner of the stage of the Tour 14 times was more than 40 minutes from the winner Geraint Thomas. Consequence: due to the late waiting period, the tour is over for Kittel

The previous year, the French had called the 30-year-old after five stage wins – in reference to Franz Beckenbauer – always "The Kaiser". But on the 2018 Tour, he did not run, more than a third place at the start did not jump. The reasons:

Heavily drawn: In 2017, Marcel Kittel had to finish the tour on stage 17 after a fall. (Source: DAVID STOCKMAN / imago)

The Last Hard Stages

The previous year, Kittel did not complete the tour, but he moved on to the 17th stage, on which he had a big accident. The fact that 2018 is already finished after eleven sections, it's mostly the last days: Section in Roubaix, where it was 22 kilometers on cobbles, Tuesday the first alpine stage with some extremely steep ramps, gravel roads and unpaved dirt roads, Wednesday then just a little over 100 kilometers of short section with three hard mountains, from the beginning

Kittel's resigned comment to "radsport-news.com": "What bothers me, it is the fact that I am not hanged, but had given gas.Even with an additional ten percent form, I would have no idea how I would have I could survive such a step. "In addition to Kittel, there are also other sprinters like Mark Cavendish

absolute exception.This season, Kittel's form was not as outstanding as the # Last year, he says himself: "Every year is a little different, it is true that e all did not go well. "An indication: Up to now, Germany's best sprinter has two wins in the season on the count. Last year, it was eight hours before the tour. In addition, he was injured: "I've been sick for a week, I had to take antibiotics and you can not put it away so easily." Overall, I've been injured for a week, I've been taking antibiotics and you can not put it away so easily. I have done more physical efforts this year.
In 2017, Marcel Kittel was thrilled at Quick-Step and won eight races and the overall ranking of the Dubai Tour until the start of the tour (Source : DAVID STOCKMAN / imago)

The change of the team

Before the season, Kittel switched from Team Quick-Step to Katusha Alpecin, leaving a perfectly matched team with a sprint train well-honed – among others, a conflict of interest with Mega Talent To avoid Fernando Gaviria, who has already won two stage victories on the current tour, Kittel met a large German group led by his friend Tony Martin but of course, it takes time for team tactics to sprint. Kittel knew: "Whenever you change team, you have to get used to everything and the team must also get used to it, it's a challenge." zit after the 30-year-old turn-off is clear: there is still sand in the sprint equipment of the Kittel team. So probably also his colleague Rick Zabel, who before the tour in the interview with t-online.de spoke with caution: "Since we have not been spoiled this year by success, the goal is a stage victory.Then we do not want to think! "

The Team Chemistry

After the first unsatisfactory week presented the sports director Dimitri Konyschew Kittel publicly exposed. In the French sports newspaper L'Equipe, the Russian goes wild: "We pay him a lot, but he is only interested in himself. Before the team time trial on the third day of the tour, Kittel played with his cell phone during the team meeting. "That made me understand that I do not interest him." However, he had not "chosen Kittel."

The Konyschew explosion is a clear indication of atmospheric disturbances within the team, in which the German pilots are on one hand at Kittel and Martin and on the other hand the Russian to Ilnur Zakarin, the man for the overall standings.