Marcel Kittel is desperate to wear the yellow jersey again at the Tour de France – and his very public recce of the route in Yorkshire was further evidence of such desire. But once stage one is out of the way, does he have what it takes to battle for the green jersey? Four stage wins last time out still found him behind Sagan, Cavendish and Greipel in the points classification – with the intermediate sprints and undulating stages proving his undoing.
In flashes this year, he has shown improvement – three straight victories at the Dubai Tour included a hugely-impressive one where he emerged from the middle of a much-reduced leading pack to blast to victory.
At the Tour Down Under and Tirreno-Adriatico however, such victories did not even look like coming. At the former, his team failed to cope with the crosswinds and moderate climbs while at the latter his unfortunate crash – and subsequent bike throw – were followed by more cases of the Giant-Shimano team missing the split. Victory at Scheldeprijs reminded everybody why Mark Cavendish considers him the next great sprinter, and you certainly would not count him out for more stage wins this year. But the green jersey? It takes more than what Kittel has so far shown to win the maillot vert.
