Cycling: Where there are winners, there must be losers. Some pros also ended the 2018 cycling season with their heads bowed. The fans are disappointed and the team bosses may be angry. We look back at the three biggest disappointments of the year - and unfortunately there is also a German among them.
1) Marcel Kittel (Katusha Alpecin)
Things can happen so quickly in sports. If you were the big star the year before, you can quickly become the big bogeyman in the months that follow. Exactly this experience Marcel Kittel have to do in 2017 and 2018. While he had won five stages in the Tour de France the year before, he only celebrated twice this season in Tirreno-Adriatico. This yield was certainly not what the team and driver had hoped for. There were also some arguments and disagreements within the team during the Tour de France. Friend Tony Martin has since left the team. It is quite possible that Marcel Kittel will actually regret his move to Katusha-Alpecin. But the blond boy can also be trusted to sprint everything into the ground again in 2019.
My Tour de France dream is over. I'm very disappointed about yesterday but I tried to give my best until the end. It's the first time that I'm out of time limit like that. Maybe it makes... https://t.co/3Sb8A0A8Dd
— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) July 19, 2018
2) Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates)
end of last year Fabio Arau announced his surprise move to UAE Team Emirates. The Italian didn't sign a new contract with Astana, which surprised the Kazakh squad. So it was planned to attack at the front of the Grand Tours with Fabio Aru. The now 28-year-old certainly has the potential to do so, but in the 2018 season he disappointed on all levels. Without a single win, even without a place on the podium, Aru ends the year. Neither at the Giro d'Italia nor at the Vuelta a Espana could he fight for top positions. However, it has to be said as an excuse that he fell several times and therefore never really found his footing. Unforgettable are his pictures with totally torn pants. 2019 can only get better.
I apologize for the reaction I had but I was shocked with adrenaline and fright… falling to 70 km/h is bad. The important thing is that nothing too serious has happened. I violently beat the lower back and the buttocks. After the night we'll make the point of the situation. pic.twitter.com/Ug5VIZTeTW
— Fabio Aru (@FabioAru1) September 12, 2018
3) Warren Barguil (Fortuneo Samsic)
Anyone who won two stages and the mountain jersey at the 2017 Tour de France will be confronted with a number of expectations in the following year. Also Warren Barguil could not please his fans and sport directors this season. The Frenchman switched from Team Sunweb to second division to Fortuneo-Samsic. There he was suddenly no longer one of many, but the new star in the team. With the wild card, his fans got to see him again at the Tour de France - and didn't see much. Warren Barguil tried to win another stage and fight for the mountain jersey, but he had no chance against compatriot Julian Alaphilippe. He lost every hill sprint and never came close to winning. In general, his entire year did not go according to plan. The 27-year-old only finished on the podium at the GP de Wallonie. He finished sixth on the Deutschland Tour. This is certainly not how his sporting directors imagined his commitment.
Après une belle partie de manivelles here les jambes étaient plus que moyenne sur ce chrono avant de rejoindre Paris
J'ai pris par contre enormousent de plaisir sur ce parcours atypique du… https://t.co/MTCcxfEaDH— barguil (@WarrenBarguil) July 28, 2018