German wunderkind beats Renshaw and Cavendish in Dutch stage race opener
Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) left the World’s best sprinters in his wake as he took the opening stage of the Ster ZLM Toer, between Eindhoven and Sittard/Geleen. The 24-year-old German managed to take the scalps of both Rabobank’s Mark Renshaw, and Team Sky’s World champion Mark Cavendish in the dash for the line, and took the first yellow jersey of the Dutch stage race.
“Team Sky took the lead very early,” explained Kittel’s Argos-Shimano teammate Koen de Kort. “But the pace was not full on and so we had to start early with our team’s sprint train, and I rode for so long on the front.
“It’s nice that we got the victory, because this was a good test for us in preparation for the Tour de France,” he added.
The 151km stage saw a four-man break get clear after just 15km. Sven Vandousselaere (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Jesper Schipper (Cyclingteam De Rijke), Rens te Stroet (Cyclingteam Jo Piels) and Jeffrey Wiersma (Metec Continental) were able to stretch out a lead of seven minutes by the middle of the stage, but were steadily closed down by the peloton and caught with 15km to go.
Argos-Shimano, Rabobank, and Team Sky all contributed to the chase, but it was Cavendish’s black, white and blue team that led into the final kilometres. Argos-Shimano managed to take over into the finishing straight, however, launching Kittel towards his sixth victory of the season so far.
The German was a convincing victor, taking what will be a morale-boosting win ahead of what will likely be his debut Tour de France in just over two weeks’ time.