​​Tour de France bikepacking with Marcel Kittel

With 89 professional wins to his name, 14 of which came at the Tour de France, Marcel Kittel was one of the most decorated sprinters to have graced the pro peloton. But while he may have felt at home sprinting through the bunch, he’s a fish out of water when it comes to bikepacking. So, I arranged to show him the ropes, as we rode from Germany, over the French border to La Planche des Belles Filles.

This iconic French climb was hosting the summit finish of the 2022 Tour’s seventh stage. If we timed it right, we’d arrive just in time to watch the peloton battling their way to the top. This was going to be quite different from Marcel’s usual Tour experience: in 2017, when Marcel won five stages, he had an air-conditioned bus, a team chef, even a masseuse! On this adventure, it was just me and my tent. Which we’re sharing. I might have forgotten to mention that when we were planning this…

Day 1

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Kandern, Germany

Our meeting point was Kandern, a sleepy German town just east of the river Rhine. I found Marcel ready and raring to go – he must have been unaware of what exactly he had signed himself up for. Pleasantries out of the way, we saddled up and hit the road. From Kandern, we were heading west: the French border was calling.

As we cruised through picturesque German farmlands, I asked Marcel what he’d been doing since retiring from the pro peloton.

“I'm really happy,” he said. “I'm a dad of two children now, married to my beautiful wife. You know, after my career, I'm very proud of what I’ve achieved family-wise. That's my main focus. I'm still in the sport. I’m at the Tour de France for television, I’m working with great partners like Enduro. That’s something that really still keeps my connection with the sport," he said.

“And now you get to go on bikepacking trips with me and, uh, share a tent,” I replied.

“Exactly… we share a tent?”

“Didn’t I tell you that?” Oops.

Since I was riding with one of the greatest sprinters of all time, obviously I had to challenge him to the odd town-sign sprint. Unsurprisingly, he wiped the floor with me, but I blame my heavily laden bike - I was carrying the tent after all. Oh, and my fork-mounted sleeping bag. So un-aero. I didn’t stand a chance.

We crossed the border into France, and the landscape became distinctly more lumpy. We found ourselves in our easiest gears surprisingly quickly. Marcel told me that he hadn’t ridden a long climb for “quite a while” – for a pro, that could mean anywhere between a week and five years, but I sense it’s the latter. We lumbered over the hills of France, eventually arriving at our camp spot.

I showed Marcel the grassy pitch that would be our bed for the night. “Just like in the Tour,” he laughed. The two-man tent looked pretty tiny with the two of us standing next to it.

“They should write on their website that it's for two small persons, not for a sprinter and his help,” he said. Especially when the ‘help’ is over two metres tall.

As we were setting up, I saw Marcel's true ‘dad on a camping trip’ side coming out, when he snapped a stick and gave me a proper demo on how to drive in a peg.

The evening passed by, and soon enough I was lying inches away from Marcel. This trip was quite an unconventional interview approach, I’ll grant you. Thankfully, I managed to get through the entire night without elbowing him in the face.

Day 2

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First things first: morning brew

Marcel emerged the next morning looking box fresh. Hair on fleek. Pristine athleisure get-up. How does he do it? We had a brew, packed up, and hit the road.

And his thoughts on my tent? “Surprisingly comfortable, maybe just like a Formula One hotel at the Tour de France.”

I’ll take that.

We got underway, and as we entered Tour de France territory, we began to see the campervans in lay-bys, waiting for the race to pass. I asked Marcel what stories he could tell us about racing the Tour.

“Not too much,” he laughed. Funny, even after retiring, he’s reluctant to give his secrets away.

But he went on, saying: “You cry because of joy with your wins. But you also cry because of pure disappointment when you cannot finish and continue.

“It's also about psychology in the gruppetto, so I would be in the grupetto with [André] Greipel with Cav [Mark Cavendish], they would have their teammates, I would have my teammates. We all had the same goal, but there was always an atmosphere of ‘okay, if I feel better uphill than the other guys – the other sprinters – I'll go that one kilometre [per hour] extra uphill just to annoy them’. They would do the same thing to me. You just can't show weakness. It's really like a poker game all the way: you're actually really suffering but you don't want to let them see it.”

On the Col du Ballon d’Alsace, we found a memorial to René Pottier, who was the first rider up this climb in 1905, and the Tour winner in 1906. Back then, the race was 5,000km long. Marcel and I chatted about those first Tour riders.

“I have so much respect for them,” he said. “I mean, I cannot imagine riding on a steel frame, completely different equipment, and a longer distance.”

It felt good to be tracing that heritage and following its footsteps. That night, I’d arranged a bit of a treat for Marcel: we’d be spending the night in a mountain cabin. As we cracked open a mini bottle of red wine (we were in France, after all), I think we were both pretty certain that bikepacking is a lot more fun than bike racing.

Day 3

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Marcel Kittel and Conor Dunne cruising through French countryside

The next morning, Marcel reflected on the trip, and the race we were riding to watch.

“The bike is heavy, everything is a little bit different, and also the riding speed is very different… but that's exactly why you do it,” he said. “You don't want to ride fast, you want to ride slow, you want to take a look where you are. You want to enjoy it, and I really really like that.

“I was always on the other side. Everything was planned. As a rider you are guided by your team. Afterwards, you step into the bus but you don't really have time for the atmosphere.

“This is going to be very different today, and I'm really looking forward to just feeling it: feel the Tour, feel yellow, feel the race – this is going to be really great.”

Day three, then. We started riding, and along every road, the anticipation was palpable. Everyone was getting ‘Tour fever’ – you could feel the race was close.

For that whole morning, we were on perfect roads: smooth tarmac, nice sweeping bends, wide hairpins, everything you could ask for.

Soon enough, we were in the thick of it on La Planche des Belles Filles, surrounded by cycling fans waiting for the race to pass. There was a carnival atmosphere, with banners, costumes and music wherever you turned. As we made our way to the top in a throng of riders, Marcel was mobbed by fans. It must have been surreal to see this legend of the sport waiting on the side of the road.

Eventually, we hit the final 1.5km, where access was restricted. I turned back to get a spot, while Marcel flexed his Tour credentials and pushed on to the top.

Eventually, he wheeled down to meet me, and together we waited for the race. As the helicopters circled overhead, and the caravans came by throwing t-shirts, hats and more, it was impossible not to be gripped by anticipation.

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Tour fever on La Planche des Belles Filles

I ask Marcel how he’s finding it.

“It's so good to be here. It’s great to see all the people, just like what we expected. Just a different perspective on the whole race actually, and I'm just like a 12 year old now, waiting for the gift from the caravan.”

Eventually, the race came past. The motorcade, the team cars, the riders. Marcel was ecstatic to see German riders on the front as they came past. In the end, it was Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) who took the stage.

Once the race had passed, and the crowd thinned, Marcel reflected on his first time as a road-side fan: “I got so excited that I got goosebumps...It was great to be on that side of the road and not actually on the road in the final.”

But did he miss it?

“I didn't miss it. I enjoy where I am now actually, and it was a great experience with this one...You stand here and now you see those guys suffering uphill – I can't imagine doing it. It's so weird because it's not so long ago, but the difference is already huge.”

Three days with Marcel really gave me a good sense of the man behind the wattage. He’s easy company, a good laugh, and effortlessly cool. And despite years in the pro peloton, he still loves cycling, from the simple thrill of a fast descent, to the fanfare surrounding the greatest races in the calendar. Plus, I think I might be bringing him round to bikepacking. Really, I couldn’t have asked for a better riding partner.