After a season to forget, "my worst ever," Marcel Kittel wants to reclaim the throne of king of the sprinters. The German sprinter is ready to reach new goals at the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France-

"I have had a great start with the team and we have already talked about what we want to do together,” he tells Tuttobiciweb. “I explained to my teammates where I'm going, where I want to be in the races and how I expect to work with them. Now we have to transform the plan into reality to get important results. The team seemed to me very relaxed and open-minded. I needed a welcome like that.

"A train cannot be invented overnight. To find the perfect feeling, you have to go from making mistakes. Being in the finale of a race takes time. Certainly we are not starting from scratch but we lack the power. I felt it in my own legs in the most demanding workouts but certainly we need a little time to get to know each other in the races and not make mistakes in launching the sprint. The best workout will be racing.

“I can rely in particular on Richeze and Sabatini but we will not have predetermined positions. We will have an open group of riders and based on the race and the conditions we will make the train for the 'occasion. There will not be a rider for a given position. We must be ready to react to any setback.

"For the first half of the season the goal is a good start and to build a nice train to be competitive in the most races stages, starting with the Giro and Tour. I will not be Sanremo or the classics as we have a very strong team. I will only ride the Scheldeprijs.

“For some years there have been fewer races for sprinters. Sanremo and other classics that once could be considered for sprinters, are now suitable for more versatile riders like Sagan and in some stage races like the Vuelta, it is almost absurd to show up at the start if you are a fast. It is not a complaint, but a simple observation. The life of sprinters has become a bit harder lately.”

Kittel does not regard himself as a replacement for Mark Cavendish.

"No, everyone has their own personality and their own way of riding,” he says. “He has left a memory in this team. I'm not a replacement for Mark because I am Marcel and the team is also changing over the years. I do not like to make comparisons and rankings among riders and teams.

“My time at Giant-Alpecin is over. It is not easy to talk about a relationship that has come to an end. With that group I had a tremendous success and I have a mix of beautiful and less beautiful emotions, but by mutual agreement we chose to part ways. Right now I only think about doing my best with my mates so that we will be to talk about how wonderful 2016 was when we meet again in a year.”