In all eight of Marcel Kittel’s Tour de France stage wins in 2013 and 2014, he has attributed his success in every single one of those stages to his teammates. One of those men is Dutchman Koen de Kort, who recently met with CyclingTips to talk 2015 and helping Kittel and Giant-Shimano’s other star sprinter John Degenkolb.

 

De Kort says that while Kittel has been the best sprinter in the Tour de France for the last two editions now, he doesn’t think his teammate will target the race’s Green Jersey in 2015. 

 

While a rule change does benefit pure sprinters like Kittel and Mark Cavendish over hillier finishers like Peter Sagan. But the teams structure and presence of John Degenkolb on the team should prevent Kittel from targeting the Green Jersey for now.

 

“I actually think that with having both John and Marcel on the same team, it is going to be pretty difficult to go for the green jersey together,” he told CyclingTips. “If both of these riders start the Tour again, I think we will not go for the green jersey because that would mean we would probably have John Degenkolb, one of the best sprinters in the world doing the leadout for maybe the best sprinter in the world.”

 

“It is kind of crazy for him to do that all Tour long and not be able to get a result himself, because that is basically what it would come down to.”

 

“As a result, I think we have to try to keep doing it the same way as we did this year, picking some stages for Marcel and picking some stages for John. That said, I guess in the event that either one of them doesn’t really want to go and do the Tour de France or maybe has an injury or something, then maybe that [the green jersey] could become a goal.”

 

Kittel’s last Tour performances and his 2014 Giro d’Italia, where he showed he has the ability to come from way down to win as well as being well positioned at the front for victory, confirm to close friend de Kort that his success wont stop anytime soon.

 

“It is almost unbelievable to think about what he could achieve in the future. He is still young yet he has already won so much.”

 

“You could see his speed a couple of times when he was in incredible shape…like in the Giro, for example. It was unbelievable how strong he was and from how far back he came to still win stages. If he manages to get that form consistently through the season, I think he can win an enormous amount of races. He can still get better and better.”

 

Some spectators of cycling wonder if Kittel may begin to focus on Classics but de Kort is quite sure that for the foreseeable future Kittel will remain focused on Grand Tours and the Scheldeprijs, which he has won for the last three years, will be the extent of his powers for now.

 

“I think in his mind he has already decided what he wants to do,” he explained. “He knows what he is good at and he knows how he has to train to get to the right shape. I think he will be very realistic in picking his goals, but at the same time knowing how to get to the perfect shape there.”

 

“I think we can expect quite a few more seasons quite similar to this one and last one.”

 

Sprinters seem to have personalities that match their form. When Cavendish wins, he is fantastic to watch and listen too, but when he doesn’t, he has others running scared of upsetting him and him biting back. Sagan is playful when he is on song but can be rather short when things aren’t going his way. Kittel seems to always have the balance right, cheerful when winning yet always approachable when he is not.

 

“He is a great guy to have on the team. You see him after the finish; he’s always thanking his teammates and always saying how good his team was. He truly believes that and he truly acts like that to us as well, which makes our job so much easier,” he said.

 

“It is a pleasure to work for him as you know he is grateful and he will thank you for it. We don’t only get paid to do it; we actually feel that we want to do it. I guess that is the big difference. He is a very, very likeable guy.”

 

De Kort gave CyclingTips one example of Kittel’s kindness and generosity after the Tour de France.

 

“He brought us to the Nürburgring race circuit. Marcel took the Tour de France team there for two days, racing the cars around.”

 

“That was his present for us working for him in the Tour de France. I guess it kind of says what kind of person he is. Some other riders would maybe buy just an easy present, but he went all in and tried to have a couple of days away with us and make it special and memorable.”

 

But de Kort makes it clear. Kittel is not always mister nice guy on the bike and he is angry when he loses.

 

“When he loses, you can see he is angry,” he clarifies. “But I think he tries to find the problems in himself first before he talks about us and what we could do better.”

 

“He is not yelling after the finish, telling us what we did wrong. He would rather yell out what he did wrong, and then later say something to us.”

 

“Obviously if you are a sprinter you have to be a bit of an explosive type. I think there is no way around it. He definitely has that in him, but we see it almost never. In that regard he is a bit different to most of the other big-name sprinters.”

 

De Kort makes a living helping other riders, not just Kittel. He has played a big part in John Degenkolb’s recent successes since 2012 to and the only way he can help both men is if he stays in form for as long as possible.

 

“I think personally I had a pretty high level the whole year around,” he said. “I have got used to and am very happy with the role I have on the team now. Trying to make other riders better, whether that is using my experience to teach the younger riders some things or doing a sprint leadout or that sort of thing.”

 

“I think my personal level was definitely high enough the whole season to do a good job with that. I believe I showed that, especially in the Tour and the Vuelta, where I think I was quite a big part in all the victories we got there with the sprinters.”

 

Having been a part of such a great season, it is not easy for de Kort to pick a high point in the season for him but he did eventually come to one: “Marcel winning again on the Champs Elysees was the highlight. As a sprinter and as a sprinters’ team, winning on the Champs Elysees is the biggest one, and doing that two years in a row was special.”

 

“That also wasn’t the first victory in the Tour. We won quite a lot of stages in the beginning, then it took quite a long time to win a stage again. As a result of that, it felt like a huge relief when it came.”

 

De Kort will spend time with his girlfriend in Australia (many people have called him an adopted Australian as he spends so much time there and even his accent sounds Australian) during the offseason before he returns to his Girona base to build for what he hopes will be another successful 2015.

 

“I think my role is going to be pretty similar to what I have done this year,” he said.

 

“I hope to be a bit better in the Classics and take up a little bit of a bigger role there, helping John Degenkolb out. It would be great if we helped him to win one of the monuments.

 

“He has been pretty close in Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and especially Paris-Roubaix last year. He has won some big races already, but a monument is lacking still.”

 

“I really hope I can be a big part of that next season. And after that, it is on to the Grand Tours for me again, and helping out these two sprinters and trying to get them stage wins again.”

 

“I am not sure whether I am only going to be the Tour, or if it is going to be the Tour and Vuelta combination again. They will decide that later. But my main goal will be the Tour de France again, and trying to help the guys as much as possible.”