Marcel Kittel has set his tour focus on the Giro d'Italia. His team Giant-Shimano announced this today. The Arnstadt native should concentrate on the sprint stages.
The team nominated twelve riders to be shortlisted for the Tour of Italy. Nine drivers will eventually make it into the squad. In addition to Kittel, who won four stages of the Tour de France last year, there are also Nikias Arndt, Bert De Backer, Johannes Fröhlinger, Simon Geschke, Tobias Ludvigsson, Luka Mezgec, Tom Peterson, Georg Preidler, Tom Stamsnijder, Albert Timmer and Tom Veelers on the provisional list.
"Our number one goal at the Giro d'Italia is a stage win and there are a number of ways to do that at the start of the Tour", according to Kittel. His biggest competition is likely to be André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).
The Tour of Italy begins in Belfast on May 9th. After the opening stages in Ireland, the Tour will return home, where it will finish on June 1st.