According to a report in La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Giro d'Italia are the three WorldTour races on Marcel Kittel's calendar in the first part of his first season with Etixx-Quick Step.

Kittel (1988) will start his season at the Dubai Tour where he hopes to return to his best after a diastrous 2015 seasonmarked by health problems. A virus kept him out of competition in the first half of the season and things never became much better. He wasn't selected for the Tour de France only scored one victory in the Tour of Poland as the hightlight of 38 days of competition. Last year he had 14 wins (four stages in the Tour de France and two in the Giro d'Italia ); in 2013 he had 16 wins (four in the Tour de France), in 2012 he raised his arms 13 times and he achieved an impressive 17 victories (a stage of the Vuelta a Espana) in 2011.

The German started his career with Skil-Shimano in 2011 and has continued in the same team until 2015 under the names of Argos-Shimano, Giant-Shimano and Giant-Alpecin. His breakthrough came in the 2013 Tour de France when he won four stages and in 2014 he repeated that performance, adding to two Giro victories.

If the reports are confirmed, he will make his second appearance in the Italian grand tour.

Dan Martin (Garmin-Cannondale), Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing), Max Richeze (Lampre-Merida) and U23 riders Fernando Gaviria, Rodrigo Contreras (both 1994), Laurens De Plus (1995) and Davide Martinelli (1993) are the other Etixx-Quick Step signings for 2016.