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Flashback Friday: The day Marcel Kittel won his final Tour de France stage in Pau
Today’s Stage 13 of the 2024 Tour de France has just finished in Pau, with Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen triumphing on the 75th time the city has welcomed the peloton. Only Paris and Bordeaux have featured more often. There has been many a victor celebrated on the city’s streets, from the climbing exploits of Fausto Coppi to sprinters such as Sean Kelly, Robbie McEwen and, in 2017, Marcel Kittel.
The German sprinter burst onto the pro scene in 2011 with perfectly styled hair and a penchant for destroying the field with his raw power. At his peak, such was his dominance that he was practically a lock for every flat finish thrown at him, be it in the one-day races or Grand Tour sprint stages.
In 2013 he won the opening stage of the Tour de France to pull on the maillot jaune, before going on to win three more stages including on the Champs-Élysées. He did exactly the same the following year – four stage wins, Stage 1 yellow jersey, win on the Champs-Élysées.
A couple of dry years at the Tour made it look like the days of his dominance were over – until he turned up for the 2017 Tour de France.
Early season fortunes
Before its merging with the Abu Dhabi Tour to form the UAE Tour in 2019, the Dubai Tour was a playground for the sprinters, with its flat parcours making it a place to stretch the legs early in the season. In 2017 Kittel came out swinging in February, winning three of the four contested stages to take the overall and points classifications.
At the sprinters’ classic in Scheldeprijs that same year, his teammate Tom Boonen’s final race in Belgium, Kittel reigned supreme for what was his fifth Scheldeprijs win on a 202km course. He lost his leadout man Fabio Sabatini in a large crash in the closing kilometres but was delivered to the finish line by Matteo Trentin and, once his head was in the wind, no one could surpass the giant. To this day, he still holds the most wins in the race.
Kittel would go on to pick up stage victories in the Tour of California and ZLM Tour before heading to the Tour de France.
Germany hosts the Tour de France
The 2017 Tour held its Grand Départ in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was a historic moment for the sport, as the Tour de France had been dropped from German public broadcasters such as ARD and ZDF due to low ratings and doping scandals that had plagued cycling. It was picked up again by public broadcaster ARD in 2015 with an exit clause to pull race coverage should any more drugs cases rear their heads. For Germany to have the opportunity to host the opening stages just two years later was huge.
Kittel knew as much. After winning on Stage 2 on a day that departed from Düsseldorf, he said, ‘It makes me really, really proud to see that this sport is now well-accepted again in my home country. There was definitely a time where not so many spectators were standing next to the road.’
In Troyes on Stage 6 – where the 2024 peloton also finished its first week of racing – Kittel again asserted his authority, barely appearing to turn the pedals in comparison to a bike-weaving maillot vert Arnaud Démare of FDJ. Kittel made it two in a row the next day, albeit it this one was much closer after a strong challenge from Dimension Data’s Edvald Boasson Hagen and a photo finish.
Through the first rest day and with a new week came a sense of déjà vu. Stage 10 was a straightforward day from Périgueux with the only challenges being two minor Category 4 bumps in the road. At the end of the day, the two Germans of Kittel and John Degenkolb would do battle. Once teammates at Giant–Shimano before Degenkolb left for Trek-Segafredo, they were well acquainted with one another. Kittel was in the points jersey having overtaken Démare after Stage 7, and he would increase his lead to more than 100 points with victory on Stage 10.
For the final time…
Resplendent in green, Kittel took to the start line of Stage 11 in Eymet. As the scripts for these flat stages often go, a three-man breakaway went up the road, which ended up being just one escapee, Maciej Bodnar of Bora-Hansgrohe.
After more than 200km in the breakaway and 23km on his own, Bodnar’s heart would be broken in the final 200m as Kittel clocked his fifth victory of the race.
This might not match the record for most stage wins in one edition, which would be the eight achieved by Charles Pelissier (France), Eddy Merckx and Freddy Maertens (Belgium), but the audacity of amassing five stage victories in 11 days perhaps defines the Kittel era. He was unstoppable, his explosive presence and sheer power on the pedals rarely surpassed on a flat finish. Who knows what could’ve unfolded on the Champs-Élysées had Kittel not crashed hard on Stage 17 prior to the punishing Col de la Croix de Fer, forcing him to abandon the race while leading the points classification.
No one knew it at the time, but Stage 11 in Pau would be Kittel’s final win at the Tour. He moved to Katusha-Alpecin the following season and sprinted to third on the opening stage of the 2018 Tour de France but finished out of the time limit on a mountainous Stage 11 that included two hors categorie climbs and summit finish on the Category 1 La Rosière.
This would be his last participation in the race as he chose to retire from cycling at his home race of Scheldeprijs in 2019, aged 31. Kittel said, ‘I’ve lost all motivation to torture myself,’ and, ‘I didn’t want to watch my son grow up via Skype.’
Since ending his professional career, Kittel has been a champion for mental health and outspoken in the pressures that the sport can deliver. He will always be remembered for his dominance in sprint victories – and his final win in Pau back in 2017 – perhaps just as much as his work off the bike.
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