Marcel Kittel is still struggling to come to terms with not being selected for the Giant-Alpecin Tour de France team.

“I am still very disappointed,” he said, according to the DPA news agency, as he rode to the start of the German Road Race, which he abandoned.

The day before, Kittel, his manager Jorg Werner and team manager Iwan Spekenbrink held a four hour meeting. While there were no outcomes released and we can only speculate at what was said, the statements afterwards were far from positive. There was no agreement amongst the parties, Werner said. There is no thought of an early contract termination “right now”, he said, “We don’t want to go that far at this time” -- giving the impression that it remains a possibility.