Cavendish Rides On

Mark Cavendish will ride on in 2024 and target the Tour de France.

He had planned to retire at the end of the 2023 season, but crashing on Stage 8 of the Tour de France was not the way he envisaged bowing out.

The Manxman’s Astana Qazaqstan team recently released a video showing the aftermath of his TDF crash, entitled It’s Not Over Yet.

It was followed up with a video message from Cavendish, Just One More Year, Hey?

Cavendish will be 39 next Summer. His chances of stage wins at the Tour will be boosted Astana’s recruitment of Michael Morkov.

The Danish lead-out man worked with Cavendish at Deceuninck Quick-Step, notably during the 2021 Tour de France when Cav won four stages.

Greek coach Vasilis Anastopoulos was also part of the team at Deceuninck Quick-Step, and will now join Astana as Head of Performance.

Team boss Alexander Vinokourov said:

‘The experience and knowledge Vasilis possesses can help us to improve the whole race preparation in the team, increasing our performance significantly.

At the same time, we are also aiming to develop the sprint and I believe Vasilis is the right person for it.

He is a big professional and with the vision Vasilis has for the key points we have to work on, I believe that in the upcoming seasons we can improve a lot – both in the direction we chose at the start of this season with the arrival of Mark Cavendish and Cees Bol, and in the direction of the stage races and climbing, in working with such riders as Alexey Lutsenko’.

alexander vinokourov

Max Kanter and Davide Ballerini have also joined Astana, as part of the team’s sprint lead-out train.