Marcel Kittel

Kittel made his professional debut in 2011 with the Dutch team Skil–Shimano. 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.

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.[5] 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.[6] 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 (FDJ–BigMat).[7] After bad luck struck on stage 3, where he suffered a flat tyre with 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) to go,[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]

In 2013, Kittel's team Argos–Shimano was promoted to the first division of the sport and was granted World Tour status.[11] Kittel won the first stage of the Tour of Oman in a sprint finish, his first success of the season.[12] 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 RadioShack–Leopard. 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 Omega Pharma–Quick-Step rider Mark Cavendish. He would finish 4th in the Green Jersey points standings.

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.[13] 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.[14] He also won the closing stage.[15]

In January, Kittel won the Down Under Classic in Australia for the second year in a row.[16] 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,[17] but he dropped out after riding 100 kilometres (62 miles) in the first stage.[18] He was supposed to make another comeback at the Tour of California but he withdrew days before the event, citing illness once again.[19] 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.[20] "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.[21]

In October 2015, it was announced that he had signed a two-year deal with Etixx–Quick-Step from 2016, after Team Giant–Alpecin released him from his contract a year early.[22]

At the Dubai Tour, his first race of the season, he won two stages, the overall classification as well as the points classification.[23] He carried on his successes to the Portuguese race Volta ao Algarve, winning stage 1 by a significant margin over André Greipel.[24] He also won stage 4 and the points classification jersey.[25]

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

Kittel at the start of the 2018 Milan–San Remo

For the third year in a row, he chose to start his season at the Dubai Tour, but was unable to win any stages.[26] Kittel took two wins in the 2018 season, both of which came at Tirreno–Adriatico.[27]

Kittel started the 2019 season strongly, winning the Trofeo Palma, part of the Challenge Mallorca, and taking second place at the Clásica de Almería.[28] 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 Team Katusha–Alpecin was terminated.[4] This was a mutual decision by the team management and Kittel, who opted to take time off from professional cycling because of fatigue.[29]

Kittel announced his retirement from professional cycling on 23 August 2019.[30]