After taking two stages and the overall at the Dubai Tour, Marcel Kittel has written a blog on the Etixx-QuickStep website about his first race of the year.

“I chose Dubai Tour to be my maiden event of the year because it's a very good race for sprinters and for me a good race to start my season with. I have great memories of the 2014 Dubai Tour, where I won 3 stages. This was also for us a good moment to test the team regarding the lead-out, regarding the sprint, how everything works without having too much stress. And when you saw the line-up for this race... with Cavendish, Viviani.... I don't need to explain why this was such an important test!”

Many people thought it would take time for Kittel and his leadout train to gel together and that wins may not be immediate, but the big German sprinter says sports director and former sprinter Tom Steels has played a big role in helping him adjust to his new surroundings.

“It was also good to have Tom Steels here in Dubai. What I really appreciate about Tom is that he always stays calm, never gets annoyed. And the fact that he has a lot of experience with sprinting is good so I can really learn from him still. He knows so much and can communicate on a level that you really understand each other. He studied the parcours of the stages like a week before and calculated everything to make the lead-out and the sprint work.”

Kittel concluded by saying that he had a dream start to the season and is now focusing on his next two races, Volta ao Algarve and Paris-Nice.