Kittel eager to race with new team

dubai — German sprinter Marcel Kittel is excited about the prospect of racing with his new team and is eager to see how it pans out at the Dubai Tour.

Kittel, the only two-time winner of the Tour, switched teams by joining Team Katusha Alpecin from Quick-Step Floors, with the swap seeing Olympic champion Elia Viviani go the other way.

And Kittel, who won the Tour in 2016 and 2017 hoped for a successful period with Team Katusha Alpecin.

“First of all, I’m happy to be with the team here,” Kittel said on Monday.

“We want to find out how good we are. We’ll see how we start the race. Our focus is on the first stage. It’s a big challenge in the beginning of the race. I hope we can do well tomorrow,” added the 29-year-old.

Kittel said that the Dubai Tour was a great opportunity to race together. “In Dubai, we have a nice chance to race together and also try ourselves how we work as a team together in racing conditions. That’s very exciting for me,” he said.

“I’m with a new team but we have to simply find a way to work together. I think we will do well. This is a perfect race for us as sprinters,” Kittel added.

Meanwhile, Trek-Segafredo’s John Degenkolb had great memories of the Dubai Tour.

“I’ve enjoyed it every time I come here. Dubai is a great place, I even came here on holiday once. It’s nice to start the season here. The organisation of the race is excellent with a good combination of sprints and I really like the finish to Hatta Dam. I have great memories of it, not from when I crossed the finish line but the emotion afterwards. You have to dig really deep to win that finale. Our team has had a superb start to the year in Argentina. The atmosphere was great also in Mallorca where we already won the first stage,” said Degenkolb.

It will be a first for Nacer Bouhanni and his team Cofidis, who will be racing here for the first time. “This is the first time for Cofidis riding the Dubai Tour. Our team has a new management this year. A few things have changed but my preparation has remained pretty much the same. I’m happy to come here and compete with the world’s best sprinters,” said Bouhanni.

We want to find out how good we are. We’ll see how we start the race Marcel Kittel