Marcel Kittel

Marcel Kittel endured a difficult 2015 season, but he began 2016 on a high note Wednesday by winning the Dubai Tour opener.

The German edges last year's overall winner in a bunch sprint.

Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel will face off for the first time in more a year starting Wednesday at the Dubai Tour.

The floppy hair and high-voltage smile are still there, but the only thing Marcel Kittel is worried about right now is returning to the fast lane

Marcel Kittel was the sprinter of reference last year, but where did he go in 2015?

Deloitte and Lidl underwrite Cavendish and Kittel's respective places on teams, but the investment may not be sustainable or effective.

The German was able to work out a deal with current team Giant-Alpecin to sever his contract early.

After five years with Giant-Alpecin, Marcel Kittel will leave the team after a tumultuous season.

The German sprinter has worked out a deal to end his contract with Giant a year early, according to a report.

Marcel Kittel's agent assures that his star client will fulfill the final year of his contract with Giant-Alpecin in 2016.

In another blow for Marcel Kittel, the German national team is overlooking him in favor of Andre Greipel and John Degenkolb for Richmond.

Marcel Kittel will miss yet another grand tour as Giant-Alpecin leaves him off Vuelta roster despite German sprinter's win in Poland.

Matteo Pelucchi bests Marcel Kittel and Giacomo Nizzolo in a messy sprint to take the victory in the Tour of Poland

Kittel finally races back into the winner's circle after a season marked by lingering illness that saw him miss the Tour de France

The German sprinter has won three of the four sprint stages in this Tour de France, including Sunday's close finish in Valence

A lack of fitness kept Marcel Kittel out of the Tour de France, but he'll return to race at the Tour de Pologne next month

The Tour has plenty of big name firepower, but there are several riders not at the French grand tour

A roundup of some of the top stories in the days before the start of the 2015 Tour de France

Though Kittel is a proven stage winner, Giant-Alpecin feels it has more options than ever to collect victories at the Tour

The Giant-Alpecin star has eight Tour de France stage wins but will miss this year's race after an illness

The German sprinter has missed most of the season with a virus, and his team says he's not in top form

The Norwegian has 18 wins so far this season, but several riders will challenge him in the mass gallops to the finish line

The German has been sidelined for most of the 2015 season with a virus

With the peloton's star sprinters opting out of the Giro, Greipel is in driver's seat, but up-and-coming speedsters may also have chances

The Giant-Alpecin sprinter has struggled with illness and a lack of fitness this season

The German sprinter has been sidelined since March with an illness

Marcel Kittel's spring season has been plagued by a mysterious virus that has forced him off the bike for more than a week

The Giant-Alpecin sprinter is still recovering from a virus he picked up after the Tour Down Under

Suffering from the aftermath of illness and missed training after Tour Down Under, Kittel hopes for better form later in the spring

Amgen Tour of California invites 18 teams to the 2015 event, expects sprint showdown between Sagan and Kittel for race's 10th anniversary

The German sprinter likes to win, and he got right to it Sunday at the People's Choice Classic in Adelaide, prelude to the Tour Down Under

The six-day race in South Australia gets underway January 20

The British sprinter has won 25 Tour de France stages in his career

Marcel Kittel and Kirsten Wild's turns of speed are inarguably the most formidable in professional cycling

The pair of Americans will join teammate Marcel Kittel in Australia next month

Grand tour stage winners, points classification champions, and classics superstars will take on the early-season race in Qatar

After three years without live Tour de France coverage, German TV considers the possibility of broadcasting the race again

The 2014 season confirmed Marcel Kittel's standing as top sprinter in the world, highlighted by his four stage wins at the Tour

Under the four-year deal, the team will be called Giant-Alpecin beginning in January

Though he's happy with his team, the German all-rounder knows something must change if he wants to win the Tour's points competition

Marcel Kittel beat out Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani) and Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in the 104.8km circuit race

Kittel may aim for the points competition in future Tours, and he hopes Germany's resurgence at the Tour will reignite interest in the sport

The powerful speedster with the gentle-giant demeanor is as driven as any other sprinter, and it shows at the finish line

Kittel claims his fourth stage win of this Tour on the Champs-Élysées as Nibali crosses safely with the bunch to confirm his overall title

With riders at the front for almost the entire day, Garmin capped stage 19 at the Tour with a victory by Ramunas Navardauskas

A detailed look at the bike of the fastest man in France

Giant-Shimano's Marcel Kittel timed his sprint perfectly to take a seventh Tour stage win in two years

Stage 1 winner Marcel Kittel took a wet field sprint in front of Buckingham Palace in London for two wins in three days

Bike racing sometimes goes according to the book, but there are days when it respects neither plot nor narrative

The stage winner and his colleagues marvel at the crowds, but say spectators need to take more care on course

Mark Cavendish and Simon Gerrans hit the deck in the finale and Marcel Kittel escapes the pileup to win the first stage of the 2014 Tour

German sprinters take an unconventional route to the Tour de France via a return trip to high altitude deep in Spain's Sierra Nevada

Colombian climber Rigoberto Urán lines up with the pink jersey in his sights as the Giro faces its first mountain stages

The German sprinter won the first two road stages of the race over the weekend

Knowing a rival's power numbers could give other riders an advantage, says the super sprinter

The German speedster was not in great position, but made it work anyway with a sprint that he called more of an attack

Despite stage wins in all three grand tours, Kittel prefers to ignore jerseys and focus on what he does best — winning races in sprints

Marcel Kittel leads the field of sprinters at the Giro, which kicks off May 9. Will he rule the mass gallops on the Italian roads?

German tops Tyler Farrar by two bike lengths in mid-week sprinters' classic

Marcel Kittel insists he's not worried that he has yet to win in Europe this season, and hopes to three-peat at Scheldeprijs on Wednesday

The sprinter will attempt to win his third straight Scheldeprijs title Wednesday in Flanders

Three-time winner Mark Cavendish will not race because of an illness

The absence of Chris Froome makes for a more unpredictable GC in Italy

The former world champ is off to a rough start, but Marcel Kittel expects a dogfight with Omega Pharma and Lotto for the sprints

Phinney takes his first stage-race triumph, Kittel scores a hat trick and Cavendish finds himself shut out and winless for 2014

German takes a second consecutive bunch sprint in Dubai and Phinney draws closer to a major stage-race victory

German jumps to the win in his first showdown with the former world champion in Dubai

Will 2014 be the season that Cavendish returns to the top or Kittel comes back to the field? A new race in the United Arab Emirates this week will give the first indications

Matthew Beaudin lays out his thoughts on the 2014 cycling season, and they include a Richie Porte win at the Giro d'Italia

As sprinters battle for bragging rights going into the Santos Tour Down Under, Kittel emerges victorious in the People's Choice Classic

The sprinter knows it will be tough to repeat last season's triumphs, but he intends to try

The bike manufacturer will also sponsor a men's development team and a women's squad

The German says he's not a pure sprinter, and that he's targeting the hilly and unpredictable classics

Andrew Hood reviews his 10 biggest stories of the year, from Horner to Froome, and everything in between

These two fast finishers turned many heads this season to earn Velo's Men's and Women's Sprinter of the Year Awards

The German powered his way to four stage wins at the Tour de France this year and says he’ll base his 2014 around the July classic

German sprinter Marcel Kittel had a breakout season, earning 16 wins (four at the Tour). Can he repeat his success in 2014?

Management will reveal the new backer at the team presentation in January

The favorites have weighed in on the 2014 Tour route and Andrew Hood digs into the race's 21 stages

German sprint ace passes a polygraph test over doping, according to German magazine