The sprinting revelation of the 2013 Tour the France took the first victory for recently renamed Giant-Shimano team, after he narrowly outsprinted Andre Greipel of Lotto-Belisol and Caleb Evan in the UniAS outfit at the finish line of the People Choice’s Classic race, opening the Santos Tour Down Under.

The full report from People Choice's Classic is to be found here:

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/peoples_choice_classic_report/

Even though Lotto-Belisol together with Team Sky took the control of the peloton in final laps of the criterium, it wasn’t enough to holf off the younger of German sprinters. The Giant-Shimano formidable train kicked-off the 2014 season with a great motivation, as they were keen to show thier new title sponsor, Giant, that it was a right decision to give a lifeline to their team, formerly called Argos-Shimano.

“I'm really impressed by the boys today, they did a great job, a big thank you goes to the team," Kittel said after the race.

"I am a sprinter, I am always motivated. It doesn’t matter if it is January or October. Today I had good legs and the team was awesome so it was great to get the win."

"The first sprint of the season is always complicated so it's always a bit of a waiting game and you need a bit of luck to be in the perfect position and I was in the perfect position to start my sprint.

"It was a bit hectic in the two last corners before the finish line and my team did a great job and brought me in a really good position and from there I was able to go my own way and start the sprint after the last corner and then it was quite close to the finish line but I am happy I managed to win.

I think we (Greipel) started at the same time, because after the last corner you have start quite early because it is only 200m from there and I was on the outside."

"It's always a relief to get the first win, now we can take it a little easy. I always love starting my season in Australia. In a race of 50km everyone is fresh at the end so I had to time my sprint just perfectly," Kittel said.

Also Kittel's team-mate and key lead-out man expressed his satisfaction with the result, as they managed to win the first race in the outfit of the new sponsor, as Argos-Shimano team was recently renamed Giant-Shimano.

"You cannot ask for more than this. We were excited to race for our new sponsor and we're happy to win the first race of the season. I had a good feeling about it all day. The team stayed together and kept Marcel in good position. It can be complicated on these tight circuits. We knew it would be really close," de Kort said.

The Gians-Shimano train's key kog was also the one who warned the German sprinter about the powerful Australian U23 champion Caleb Ewan, as he had opportunities to see him in action while undergoing his preparation perion in Australia.

"I heard about Caleb Ewan from my team-mate Koen de Kort who lives in Australia during the winter so I was not surprised to see him sprinting and coming third. This might only be a criterium but it gives me confidence for winning stages of the Santos Tour Down Under as well," Kittel said.