Kittel is changing sprinting?

Yesterday's win was a great example of how Marcel Kittel is changing sprint stages in cycling.  The standard formula for sprint teams is to queue up a lead out train and then wait and watch the other teams before sprinting hard the last few meters.  In short, to make the race truly a sprint - a very short burst at maximum.  But instead of doing this, Kittel left his train with half a kilometer to go and went nearly full gas from about 400 meters.  Andre Greipel used the classic approach yesterday and they did it quite well.  He had three men with him close to the line ready to launch him into a dead sprint for the last few meters.  Greipel was watching and waiting with his teammates when Kittel went roaring by with about 200 meters to go.  Kittel raised his arms and rolled in the last 100 meters because he was so far ahead.  He'd already won the race while the other teams were still preparing for the short sprint.

Greipel's perfect lead out train with Kittel coiled behind.

In running, there are athletes that specialize in short sprints like 50 or 100 meters and athletes that specialize in middle distance say 800 to 1600 meters.  And they are rarely the same athletes. Sprinters  can't win a mile race and milers can't win a sprint.  Those are different disciplines. Kittel is a middle distance runner and he's invited a bunch of sprinters to a middle distance race by going sooner.  And the sprinters can't keep up over the longer distance.  Remember too that Kittel tried sprinting the traditional way for a couple of years and didn't win.

I wonder if teams will start looking for different athletes to compete in these sprints.