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"I believe in him" - Marcel Kittel positive on Mark Cavendish's chances of beating Tour de France stage win record
CyclingFriday, 07 July 2023 at 14:00
Marcel Kittel has in the past raced against Mark Cavendish, at the Tour de France included. Nowadays the German is well past his retirement from pro cycling, but the Manxman remains, in hopes of taking the one win necessary to become the rider who has won the most stages in the race's history.
“That's the million dollar question. I believe in him because what I saw yesterday (stage three, ed.) was a strong Cavendish. He was almost alone in the last kilometers and he still kept his position and ended up with a good result but it's always challenging," Kittel told CyclingWeekly. "I mean, he has to surf on wheels and use his kick in the final and it's so hard. You need to invest a lot of energy. So I hope he has this kick still left when it's really necessary.”
In the two sprints so far Cavendish has ridden to sixth and fifth, a strong start taking into consideration the tough pace and very strong leadouts from the competition. Cavendish has carried good form into the Tour and the motivation too. However Kittel praises the Alpecin-Deceunin train: “It was not the fact that they were super strong, because that's what we knew before, not only Mathieu van der Poel but also Jonas Rickaert. But also, how they waited until the last kilometre is something that says a lot about their strategy, about their understanding of each other and trust in each other."
"That's something that you need and especially in a tour final, you need to be able to almost work without any communication together. And that's what we saw yesterday. So this is a huge advantage for Jasper Philipsen," he says on the Belgian who has so far won both sprints and leads the points classification, and is the main favourite for this afternoon's finale in Bordeaux.
Kittel was characterized by his status as a pure sprinter, something which nowadays becomes less common in the peloton as races become tougher, and sprinters seek more goals outside of those scenarios too. “We still have some, but the Tour's also adapting to its many talents, its new stars. And that's something that you can definitely see, how the amount of pure sprint stages decreased in the last years."
"This year we have four very clear sprint stages, and then stages like yesterday where it's kind of unsure what we will get in the end. And that's because we have great riders like Jasper Phillipsen, Wout van Aert and those guys who can survive hills. So it is going to be a challenge for Dylan Groenewegen, for example or Fabio Jakobsen who still represents these pure sprinters," he concluded.
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