Cycling: After Marcel Kittel's previous season was rather forgettable after a viral illness after the Tour Down Under, the man from Erfurt will start racing again at the WorldPorts Classic next weekend. However, the competition in the two stages in the Netherlands and Belgium is fierce.
It just hasn't been his season so far - Marcel Kittel started with a win in the prologue of the Tour Down Under, finished the tour in January with a decent result, but then a persistent viral illness struck him down. Although he competed again in the Tour of Qatar in February, as he later admitted, he was not fit and the result was correspondingly sobering. Earlier this month he was supposed to find his way back into the racing circus with the Tour de Yorkshire, but already during the first stage Kittel had to admit: It's not going yet. He left the race and then canceled the Tour of California.
He has used the past few weeks in his home country of Thuringia to work on his form with the team. Apparently these units have borne fruit, because as Kittel's team Giant-Alpecin has now announced, the 27-year-old will start at the WorldPorts Classic next Saturday and Sunday. The main thing for him will be to get back into the right rhythm before the whole team goes to the training camp in Sierra Nevada. There are two stages between Amsterdam and Antwerp for the participants. The field of riders is top-class: In the race, which is made for sprinters, the favorites are above all Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), who both confirmed their good form at the Bayern Rundfahrt last week.