Marcel Kittel, has completed the hat trick of winning a stage in all three Grand Tours as he took victory in stage 2 and stage 3 of the 97th Giro d’Italia with SRM sponsored team, Giant-Shimano. Marcel out-sprinted the field to take both the first and second road stages of the race in Ireland.

The first 219km road stage, starting and finishing in Belfast, was in the cross hairs of Marcel and the team since arriving here in Northern Ireland and the plan worked out perfectly as Marcel powered home to take the first road stage of the first Grand Tour of 2014.

The first road stage of the Giro saw four riders take to the fore early on a build up enough of a lead to spend nearly the entirety of the first stage out front of the peloton.

The final escapee was reeled back in with just three kilometres left to race and from here all was set for a sprint showdown and even with the expectation and pressure of being the favourite for the stage Marcel did not disappoint, taking the sprint in impressive fashion ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek). -Team Giant-Shimano

“I am so happy with how it worked out today, and to get the Giro off to a great start for not only me but the whole team,” said Marcel after the stage.

“The finish went quite well considering it was pretty hard to get a lead-out going on the technical run-in. The guys set me up in position and even though I was a bit isolated I managed to come round the others in the last few hundred meters. This was our target, getting the Giro off to the best start possible on the flat sprint stages here in Ireland and to re-pay the team here for their confidence and hard work is a great feeling." - Marcel Kittel, Team Giant-Shimano

In Stage 3, Marcel Kittel sprinted to victory in Dublin on his birthday!

Already clad in the red jersey of points leader, Marcel powered to his second stage win in as many days before the race’s first rest day before the peloton moves back to Italy for the remainder of the race.

The third stage saw a break of five riders take to the fore and build up enough of a gap to enjoy the points on offer during the stage, however a sprint always looked on the cards and the writing was on the wall in the final 10km as just one rider remained out front.

With seven kilometres to go the race came back together and from there in it was a fight of the sprint trains to the line. In the technical final kilometre it looked as if Marcel would have too much ground to make up after losing the wheel of teammate Tom Veelers, and he came out of the wheels in about seventh place as the sprint was launched. However he kept the power down until the line coming through at the end to take his second stage win of the race and setting out his stall for the flat stages to come. -Team Giant-Shimano