Marcel Kittel skittles Cavendish: Long live the new sprint king

Marcel Kittel was one of the biggest revelations of this year’s Tour de France with four stage wins, including one on the fabled Champs-Elysees and a day in the yellow jersey.

It’s fair to say the world’s most powerful hipster eclipsed his more fancied rivals Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.

It’s been a fairytale month for Kittel, which transformed the expected duel between Cavendish and Greipel into a three-way brawl, and provided great vindication for his Argos-Shimano squad in their first year as a fully-fledged World Tour team.

His performance at this year’s Tour deserves to be awarded the crown of best sprinter in the 2013 Tour.

“But wait!” I hear you say, “Peter Sagan’s victory in the green jersey competition obviously earns him the status of the best sprinter in the race!”

Let’s clarify the confusion. Sagan is clearly the most versatile sprinter in the current peloton, and was able to dominate that competition by virtue of collecting points constantly, on stages where his rivals were safely ensconced in the grupetto.

But Sagan was never able to win a sprint against the whole bunch, and was even outgunned by Simon Gerrans on Stage 3.

Cavendish only managed two wins, and Greipel one, which means Kittel won as many as the other three combined.

Let’s reminisce about Kittel’s Tour.

His stage one victory was a small shock, with many (myself included) tipping a Cavendish/Greipel showdown, but it came after Cavendish and Greipel were both impeded by a crash near the finish. Kittel could be passed off as ‘best of the rest’.

A day in yellow was a nice bonus.

The next opportunity for the pure sprinters was stage five when Cavendish won the stage, and this time, the tables were turned on Kittel, who was caught up in a crash near the finish and couldn’t contest the sprint.

Kittel was back in the mix in Stage 6, finishing third behind Greipel and Sagan, but defeating Cavendish.

Stage 7 belonged to Sagan, after his main rivals were dropped following a powerful display from Sagan’s Cannondale team. It was a classic Sagan victory on a stage that was too lumpy for most of the top sprinters.

All four of the top fast men now had equal footing, with a stage win each.

Stage 10 was the next chance for the sprinters, and it was all Kittel, but Cavendish’s controversial hip’n’shoulder on Argos-Shimano leadout man Tom Veelers took the headlines.

Cav was done and dusted at that point, but his reckless manoeuvre betrayed his frustration at being beaten again.

After Stage 11’s time trial, Kittel was back to his intimidating best in Stage 12. This time, he sat on Cav’s wheel, and blasted past to grab his third win.

Now, coming past the Manx Missile in a bunch sprint has been nearly impossible for the past three years, and this was really the point when it was clear Kittel was not fluking his wins.

Kittel now had three stages, a day in yellow, many new female fans, and had won a bet forcing his teammate Koen De Kort to shave his long flowing mane into a Kittel-style undercut.

His team was consistently outgunning the more fancied Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Lotto-Belisol trains, and morale within the team looked to be sky high.

The best was yet to come as Kittel scorched to victory on the coveted cobblestones of the Champs Elysees, in front of the biggest crowd you will ever see at a bike race.

With 400m to go, Cavendish’s OPQS train was in control, but a lone Cannondale rider had infiltrated the line and was sitting third wheel.

A moment’s hesitation was all the Argos-Shimano boys needed, and they came storming up the inside of the left-hander coming off the Place de la Concorde and seised the initiative.

By the time Cavendish and Greipel had responded, Kittel was at full power, and neither of them could come past. It was a textbook sprint, and finally Cav’s run of four consecutive victories on the Champs Elysees was over.

Winning both marquee sprints of the race, claiming more stages than anyone else, and dethroning Cavendish, a man who has won more than 100 victories, shows that Kittel was the top sprinter at this Tour.

So why is Kittel so fast?

At 189cm and around 85kg, Kittel is significantly bigger than his rivals. Andre Greipel, himself big enough to have earned the nickname ‘The Gorilla’, stands at 183cm and 80kg. Mark Cavendish is relatively petite at 175cm/70kg.

Size is often a disadvantage in cycling, but in bunch sprints it’s an asset, and Kittel uses it to generate a phenomenal peak power output rumoured to be around 1900W, or 300W more than Cav.

That’s enough to power a small house. It’s enough to give his bike sponsors nightmares. It’s certainly enough that going around him is like trying to overtake a European hatchback.

He has a strong, well-organised, united team, built to support himself and John Degenkolb (who is more of a Sagan-style sprinter). The team certainly held it’s own against OPQS, Lotto-Belisol, Cannondale and Orica-GreenEdge, despite coming in as underdogs.

From a fan’s point of view Kittel is also an immensely likeable personality, always gracious and smiling, and if the ladies in my Twitter feed are representative of anything he’s a handsome fellow indeed.

There’s also his forthright criticism of dopers and their supporters, which gives hope that he is indeed part of a cleaner generation. During the Armstrong revelations, he was outright scathing about those who supported the disgraced American:

“I feel sick when I read that Contador, Sanchez and Indurain still support Armstrong,” he said.

“How does someone want to be credible by saying that?! I mean, it makes it all worse. They should play their false game somewhere else. Or do they ride for money instead of joy?!”

All in all, I’m glad to see another outstanding sprinter emerge to the pinnacle of World Tour sprinting.

Cavendish has been an overwhelming force for a few seasons, and while he still has plenty of wins ahead of him, it’s great to see someone new step up, smiling, into the top echelon.

Unfortunately for Australian fans, it seems to be at the expense of an underperforming Matt Goss, who seems to have really come off the boil this season. More on Goss another time.