Marcel Kittel abandoned the BinckBank Tour Saturday, adding another disappointment to his unsatisfactory 2018 season. In his first season with Team Katusha-Alpecin, the German has only two wins, taking stages in Tirreno-Adriatico. `I`m hugely disappointed that I had to abandon @binckbanktour,` he wrote on Twitter and Instagram Saturday. `While I will be criticized once more, I`m looking for reasons behind all of this. It`s been an incredibly difficult season so far and I was hoping to turn things around here with the team. It started promising with a close 2nd place on stage 1 but after that it didn`t get any better.ADVERTISEMENT `I`m not sure with what I`m struggling at the moment. I`m trying hard to make it work but this seems to always end in a setback since April. For me the magic formula always has been to align my body and mind to be successful. I guess this is what I`m missing at the moment.` Earlier in the week, he told Cyclingnews, `I don`t really care what other people think about me. I`m just trying to concentrate on myself.` He added, `Not everything has been perfect, that`s for sure. I wanted to win more and that didn`t happen. I was struggling also a little bit myself with health issues sometimes, so things haven`t been perfect. I`m trying to finish my season well now.` Kittel, 30, finished a close second on the opening stage of the BinckBank Tour, but was rarely seen in the other stages. He has come close a number of times, with numerous top-10 finishes, but has been unable otherwise to take victories.
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