Kittel’s absence opens door for Cavendish to shine
Froome’s strength of character in question
PARIS, June 29, (AFP): Marcel Kittel being forced out of the Tour de France due to a lack of fitness will have had several sprinters and their teams quietly grinning with delight.
The last two years, Kittel has been in a class of his own at the Grand Boucle, winning four stages in each, including both the first and last on each occasion.
He also got to wear the coveted yellow jersey both years as reward for his opening stage victory.
His raw power allowed him to beat the opposition every time he arrived at a finish in contention, even overhauling a spirited challenge from Alexander Kristoff on the Champs Elysees last year thanks to a simple advantage in pure speed.
But Kittel has been suffering from illness all year and his Giant-Alpecin team decided he was not fit enough to ride the tour.
Chief amongst the relieved parties will likely be Briton Mark Cavendish, the sprinter usurped by the steam engine Kittel’s brand of raw power.
Cavendish won 25 Tour stages from 2008 to 2013 but crashed out of last year’s race on the very first stage.
But already in 2013, he won only two sprint stages as Kittel had the edge on everyone.
Cavendish is widely seen as the greatest natural sprinter ever but the trend towards fewer flat pure sprinters’ stages at the Tour and more rolling, hilly ones mean his green jersey hopes have been greatly reduced.
He did win the green jersey outright in 2011 but the last three years it has been the personal property of Peter Sagan, a more all-round fast-man.
The Slovak did not win a single stage last year but his pre-eminence in the top few places numerous times, whether the stage was flat or rolling, ensured he easily claimed the jersey.
Sagan should have more competition this year from the likes of one-day classics specialists Kristoff and John Degenkolb, the respective winners of this year’s Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Kristoff took too long to get going in the green jersey race last year but finished very strongly, winning two stages in the final week.
Although not arriving with the kind of overwhelming favourite status he’s been saddled with before, Chris Froome may find himself under more scrutiny than ever at the Tour de France.
Froome will take to the start line as one of the fantastic four favourites but with a question mark over his mental fortitude.
When the Tour course was revealed back in October, Froome’s initial reaction was to throw his toys out of the pram and threaten not to race.
The reason being that there was just one individual timetrial, and that only 13.3km in length.
Kenyan-born Briton Froome, 30, complained that the route would favour pure climbers and not give him enough chances to take time out of them in timetrials.
Although he took only a month to start back-tracking, his initial reaction could not be forgotten.
What made it so surprising is that Froome was the best climber of the 2012 Tour won by his then teammate Bradley Wiggins and he was again imperious in the mountains a year later when winning the Tour himself.