Mark Cavendish’s quest to take the stage document victory within the Tour de France this summer season might be backed by a powerful lineup of help riders, together with Michael Mørkøv, broadly rated as the perfect lead-out man on the planet.
The full lineup was launched by Cavendish’s Astana Qazaqstan squad on Monday, with the British winner of 34 Tour de France phases because the headline act.
Cavendish, 39, might be backed by Mørkøv, his former teammate at QuickStep who was key help for the Briton when he final gained on the Tour again in 2021.
Dutch sprinter Cees Bol, versatile Italian fastmen Davide Ballerini and Michele Gazzoli, and former U23 World Champion and allrounder Yevgeniy Fedorov all are set to determine in his Tour de France lead-out prepare.
The crew will even have choices within the battle for stage victories within the mountains with Harold Tejada and Alexey Lutsenko, the latter a winner in a Tour de France summit end within the Massif Centrale again in 2020. Both the Colombian and the Kazakh might toggle between combating for their very own probabilities and offering help for Cavendish to get by way of the hillier days. Lutsenko has twice taken prime ten finishes as effectively within the Tour’s GC, so he could get to battle for an general putting.
Having made a substantial effort to construct the dash prepare for Cavendish over the winter, the general lineup is a a lot stronger formation than in 2023, when he got here painfully near taking a stage win previous to crashing out with a damaged collarbone.
Apart from Cavendish, Bol, Lutsenko, Fedorov and Tejada are again within the squad for a second yr operating, however the different three – Mørkøv, Ballerini and Gazzoli – are all additional help signed to assist the Briton.
As in 2023, Cavendish can have Mark Renshaw – his personal former lead-out man who has been working all yr behind the scenes with the Briton particularly to construct up the dash prepare – named as one of many crew’s sports activities administrators for the Tour.
The major focus, in any case, might be on Cavendish, trying so as to add the record-breaking stage win on the six or seven alternatives that ought to come up for the bunch sprinters this summer season. The first probability will possible come on the stage 3 end into Turin on Monday, July 1.
Astana Qazaqstan Tour de France 2024
- Davide Ballerini
- Cees Bol
- Mark Cavendish
- Yevgeniy Fedorov
- Michele Gazzoli
- Alexsey Lutsenko
- Michael Morkov
- Harold Tejada
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