'I'm not walking blind through the world... this year has been a struggle': What next for Marcel Kittel?

After a short, winless Tour and a public dressing down from his DS, John Woodhouse asks ‘what’s next for Marcel Kittel?’

Marcel Kittel on stage one of the 2018 Tour de France (Photo by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

“I don’t want to sound pessimistic but the next days are very, very hard and nobody should take it for granted that Paris is already around the corner. Anyone can have a bad day and it can happen very quickly that you’re not on the race any more.”

Looking back, Marcel Kittel’s words on the rest day in Albertville ahead of the Alps look somewhat prophetic, a clear warning of what was to come two days later when he missed the time cut on stage 11 to La Rosière. While few sprinters made it through the Alps, the Marcel Kittel of 2018 was never the same as the five-stage winning machine of 2017.

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