Dubai: Giant-Shimano team rider and back-to-back Dubai Tour stage winner Marcel Kittel has downplayed any thoughts of a hostile rivalry between himself and any other top sprinters — including Omega Pharma-Quick Step star Mark Cavendish.
British rider Cavendish was named the Tour de France’s best sprinter of all time by French newspaper L’Equipe in 2012 after becoming the first person to win the final Champs-Elysees stage of the race for four consecutive years.
However, last year the 28-year-old was upstaged by Kittel in Le Tour finale, denying him the chance to extend his record.
In Thursday’s sprint stage of the Dubai Tour 2014, Cavendish lay in wait in fourth position with the final 10km to go. But a final burst from Kittel saw the 25-year-old German win the stage ahead of Cannondale’s Peter Sagan. And he repeated the trick on Friday’s Nature Stage, but this time with Cavendish nowhere to be seen.
“I’m trying to go my own way to follow the goals that I personally have together with the team. Then we have to see who we have to beat to achieve those goals,” Kittel said.
“Here it is Cavendish and I can’t deny that this race is important because it is an opportunity to sprint against him.
“At 1.5k [on Thursday] we moved up next to his team and Cavendish was still there. I didn’t see what happened — I don’t have eyes in the back of my head — but personally for me it’s much more satisfying if you can beat a sprinter next to each other, when you fight it out and you can see them. It makes it more interesting for the spectators. It’s fighting for the win that gives you a lot of excitement and I like that.”
Cavendish has achieved huge success in his career and his 25 stage wins on the Tour de France puts him third on the all-time list, while he is fourth on the all-time list of Grand Tour stage wins with 43.
He has also been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to British Cycling and was named the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
However, as good he is on the track, the Isle of Man rider is often a prickly customer, as seen when he avoided talking to media after Thursday’s stage.
“I’m not going out for dinner with Mark, but we have a normal relationship. It’s no problem having a chat with each other,” Kittel said.
