After making his comeback to racing, Marcel Kittel says that his return at the Tour de Yorkshire came too early, but he vowed to be back to his best in time for the Tour de France.

“I think we all know now that this wasn't the best comeback of the year 2015. ;) But I won't give up,” he joked on Twitter following his stage one abandon. “Yorkshire came maybe too early but… I'll fight back & get fitter. Honestly, cycling is more fun if you can make the others suffer & not the other way around. :P”

After falling ill at the tour Down under, he was lackluster at the Tour of Qatar and since then he has had to pull put of races like Tirreno-Adriatico and the Scheldeprijs.

“Unfortunately we were unable to play a major role in today’s stage. It was a really hard stage. From the second climb it was full gas to the finish and not surprisingly that wasn’t beneficial for Marcel,” explained Giant-Alpecin coach Marc Reef. “Of course we knew that Marcel was still far from his best shape and due to the high pace he was forced to abandon the race. For now, we stick to the plan that we have with Marcel and we continue to work towards his next goals.”

Now Kittel is set to ride the Tour of California, where he faces rival Mark Cavendish for the first time in 2015, and the two sprint giants couldn’t have had more different starts to the season, as Cavendish has eight wins and is clearly getting close to peak form ahead of the Tour.