Marcel Kittel

Marcel Kittel (born 11 May 1988) is a German racing cyclist, who rides for Argos-Shimano. Born in Arnstadt, Kittel made his Tour de France debut in 2012 when he was selected as leader of his team for the 2012 Tour de France, where he would compete for stage wins and the green jersey. However he withdrew an hour into stage 5, after suffering from a viral infection of the stomach and intestines from stage 2, the fourth retirement of the 2012 Tour. He bounced back in the beginning of August, when he won the first stage of the Eneco Tour, the first event in his return to racing. The only rider who was competitive with him in the final bunch sprint was Frenchman Arnaud Démare (FDJ-BigMat). After bad luck struck on stage 3, where he suffered a flat tyre with 5 kilometres to go, Kittel prevailed again on stage 4. He congratulated his teammates Tom Veelers and John Degenkolb for their work in the final kilometers, as they sheltered him from the wind before he propelled himself toward the finish line and the victory. At the end of 2012, as the cycling world was affected by the Lance Armstrong doping case revelations, Kittel took a vocal anti-doping stance by stating that he was "sick" of the people who still defended Armstrong in the cycling community. In 2013, Kittel's team Argos-Shimano was promoted to the first division of the sport and was granted World Tour status. Kittel won the first stage of the Tour of Oman in a massive sprint, his first success of the season