Mark Cavendish’s race programme was redrawn when he was laid low by a bout of sickness in late March, however a victory on the Tour de Hongrie final week urged that he’s selecting up momentum once more as he builds in direction of the Tour de France.
Astana Qazaqstan supervisor Alexandre Vinokourov will definitely hope so. His crew has collected simply six victories up to now in 2024, two of them from Cavendish, they usually languish in twenty first place within the UCI rankings, a scenario that leaves them dealing with a battle to keep away from relegation from the WorldTour on the finish of subsequent season.
Cavendish claimed Astana’s lone WorldTour win of 2023 when he sprinted to victory in Rome on the ultimate day of the Giro d’Italia, and he has grow to be much more of a focus for his second, and sure ultimate, season on the crew, with Michael Mørkøv and Davide Ballerini added to the roster to buttress his dash prepare.
After beginning his season with a victory on the Tour Colombia, Cavendish raced on the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico earlier than sickness dominated him out of the Classics. Following a coaching camp in Greece together with his coach Vasilis Anastopoulos, Cavendish added the Tour of Turkey to his programme earlier than racing and profitable in Hungary final week.
“With Mark, we’re at all times assured, but it surely’s good for him and the crew to win,” Vinokourov informed Cyclingnews on the Giro d’Italia. “All sprinters are all the identical – all of them need to win.
“Mark had some mechanical points in Turkey, and I feel with out that, he might need already been capable of win there. But in any case, he is received a very good degree and now he simply must work some extra in direction of the Tour.”
Vinokourov insisted that Cavendish’s sickness had not unduly delayed his preparations for the Tour, the place he’s chasing a thirty fifth stage win to say sole possession of the file he presently shares with Eddy Merckx. The subsequent part in Cavendish’s Tour buildup is an altitude coaching camp, whereas Vinokourov confirmed that the Tour de Suisse is now prone to be his ultimate race earlier than the Grand Départ.
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“The legs at all times observe the pinnacle. Your head needs to be proper first, so in that sense, it is vital that Mark is so comfortable on this crew,” Vinokourov stated. “Now he simply has to work exhausting within the final a part of his strategy to the Tour. He must work on his climbing a bit first and then he’ll do some bit of labor on his dash earlier than the Tour.
“The Tour is the objective, and we’ll do our greatest to achieve success there. I feel he is able to doing it. He must discover a good second and a very good day, and we have a very good lead-out round him with Cees Bol and Mørkøv.”
Cavendish introduced his retirement on the second relaxation day of final 12 months’s Giro, solely to reverse the choice after breaking his collarbone in a crash on the Tour. Mørkøv, for his half, informed Cyclingnews in February that he reckoned the objective of a thirty fifth Tour stage win was merely an “excuse” for Cavendish to delay his profession. Vinokourov downplayed the concept Cavendish may choose to proceed racing into 2025, however he hinted that he may be part of the crew’s administration construction.
“I do not assume he will proceed for an additional 12 months. He may stick with the crew, that is for positive, however not as a rider,” Vinokourov stated.
“After his crash final 12 months, I simply stated to Mark, ‘A rider like you’ll be able to’t end like this.’ If he’d made it to Paris, then okay, he may have stated, ‘I gave it a go and I did not handle it…’ But I feel he may have received a stage on final 12 months’s Tour – possibly even in Paris as a result of we noticed that Jasper Philipsen did not win there.”
WorldTour relegation
Vinokourov was talking in Avezzano forward of stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia, the place his Astana crew suffered one other blow with the information that Alexey Lutsenko had deserted the race as a consequence of sickness. In his absence, Lorenzo Fortunato, presently seventh on GC, will lead the road.
The crew is in dire want of UCI factors, and Vinokourov is aware of that Astana is locked in a grim battle to retain its top-flight standing when the present promotion-relegation cycle involves an finish following the 2025 season.
Astana had beforehand been on the brink in 2015 when the UCI requested its exclusion from the WorldTour following a spate of confirmed doping circumstances on the crew. The UCI Licence Commission subsequently closed its proceedings towards Astana and the crew remained within the WorldTour.
A decade on, Astana may lose their WorldTour standing for sporting causes, and it appears clear that they might want to signal stage racing expertise this summer time to assist their probability of avoiding relegation. Aleksandr Vlasov had been linked with a potential return to the crew, however he now seems prone to prolong with Bora-Hansgrohe.
“I’m actually searching for a rider who can get good leads to stage races, but it surely’s not straightforward to seek out riders like that immediately. The market worth could be very excessive, they take up a whole lot of a funds,” Vinokourov stated.
“We nonetheless have greater than a 12 months to go. We’re nonetheless hopeful, we’re not simply taking place to put arms simply like that. We’re not anxious for subsequent 12 months, we’re engaged on riders. We’re searching for a rider who can experience for GC. And now we have riders ourselves, like Fortunato, who may make a giant step, too.”