Prince William starts Stage 1 Postcard

Prince William starts the Tour de France 2014 in Leeds. Kittel won the stage from Leeds to Harrogate. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia: Kittel made his Tour de France debut in 2012 when he was selected as leader of his team for the 2012 Tour de France, where he would compete for stage wins and the green jersey. However he withdrew an hour into stage 5, after suffering from a viral infection of the stomach and intestines from stage 2, the fourth retirement of the 2012 Tour. He bounced back in the beginning of August, when he won the first stage of the Eneco Tour, the first event in his return to racing. The only rider who was competitive with him in the final bunch sprint was Frenchman Arnaud Démare (FDJ-BigMat). After bad luck struck on stage 3, where he suffered a flat tyre with 5 kilometres to go,[6] Kittel prevailed again on stage 4. He congratulated his teammates Tom Veelers and John Degenkolb for their work in the final kilometres, as they sheltered him from the wind before he propelled himself towards the finish line and the victory. At the end of 2012, as the cycling world was affected by the Lance Armstrong doping case revelations, Kittel took a vocal anti-doping stance by stating that he was "sick" of the people who still defended Armstrong in the cycling community.[8] In 2013, Kittel's team Argos-Shimano was promoted to the first division of the sport and was granted World Tour status. Kittel won the first stage of the Tour of Oman in a massive sprint, his first success of the season. In the 2013 Tour de France, Kittel found incredible success as a sprinter. He finished first in the Tour's first stage in Corsica and took the inaugural Maillot jaune of the 100th Tour de France. He lost the yellow jersey the next day, however, to Jan Bakelants of RadioShack-Leopard. Kittel was not done in this Tour, though, he would go on to win the 10th, and 12th stages. On the final stage, Kittel triumphed again on the Champs-Élysées; ending the four-year winning streak of Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider Mark Cavendish. He would finish 4th in the Green Jersey points standings. Kittel started the 2014 season by winning three stages in-a-row at the Dubai Tour. On the third stage, he survived two short climbs near the end of the race and won the sprint of a greatly reduced group. In the 2014 Giro d'Italia, Kittel won stages 2 and 3.