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Mark Cavendish reported to have signed for Astana

Gazzetta dello Sport says Manxman will join Kazakh team's training camp in Spain tomorrow...

Mark Cavendish has reportedly signed for Astana-Qazaqstan, and will join the Kazakh team at its training camp in Calpe, Spain tomorrow, according to Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Cavendish, out of contract at Quick Step-Alphavinyl, had been expected to sign for the French outfit B&B Hotels for 2023, until its sponsorship plans for next season fell apart, causing it to fold.

That left the 37 year old, who two years ago tied Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 individual stage wins at the Tour de France, without a team for the coming campaign – until Astana-Qazaqstan general manager Alexander Vinokourov expressed an interest in signing him earlier this week.

And should the report that Cavendish has signed for the team be confirmed, a record-breaking 35th stage victory at cycling’s biggest race will almost certainly be the former world champion’s prime focus next year.

It is, perhaps, an unlikely alliance; it was Vinokourov who, in his final race as a professional cyclist, won the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics, a race that Cavendish had started favourite to win, his dreams crushed however as he and his Team GB support riders were distanced on the final ascent of Box Hill.

The previous time Vinokourov had raced in the British capital, on the occasion of the Tour de France Grand Depart there in 2007, also marked Cavendish’s debut in the race, although the participation of both would soon be cut short – the Kazakh due to a failed drugs test for blood doping, the Manxman abandoning as the race hit the Alps.

Cavendish would open his account at the Tour de France the following year, and over the next nine years racked up 30 stage wins at the race to put him within touching distance of Merck’s record.

But plagued by illness and injury, he was not selected by Dimension Data for the 2019 edition of the race, and also missed the delayed 2020 Tour de France as his new team, Bahrain-Merida, also failed to select him.

At the end of that year, he secured a eleventh-hour move to rejoin Deceuninck-Quick Step, and a last-minute injury to Irish sprinter Sam Bennett opened up a slot at the Tour for Cavendish, who repaid Patrick Lefevere’s faith by winning four stages and the green jersey.

There is little room for sentiment in professional cycling, however, and this summer – despite Cavendish putting in a storming solo ride to win the British national road championship for the second time in his career – it was Fabio Jakobsen, recovered from his horrific injuries following a crash at the Tour de Pologne in 2020, who was selected as Quick Step-Alphavinyl’s sprinter for the Tour.

Cavendish’s career achievements of course go well beyond the Tour de France – three times a world champion on the track in the Madison and an Olympic silver medallist in the Omnium, on the road his victories include the 2009 Milan-San Remo, the 2011 world championship, plus stages in all three Grand Tours, in which he is one of a select group of riders to have worn the leader’s jersey in each, and an even smaller one to have won the points competition in the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.

If he does in fact ride one final season, however, all eyes will be on him in July when the Tour de France gets under way in Bilbao – with a chance, in what is highly likely to be his final season in the peloton, to move ahead of Merckx in stage wins at the race.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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13 comments

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PRSboy | 1 year ago
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Youd think a WT team would leap at the chance of signing Cav; there would be huge publicity for the team for just one more TDF stage win, though I appreciate easier said than done...

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Fignon's ghost replied to PRSboy | 1 year ago
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It seems more a political issue. Do the powerbrokers think Cav is worthy of beating a long held record by the great cycling legend?
They bloody should do! He's a dogged and determined sprint legend!

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Rendel Harris replied to PRSboy | 1 year ago
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Huge negative publicity if he doesn't though, a team's whole Tour effort, perhaps even their whole year, becomes associated with failing to achieve what they set out to do. I think the main problem though is the presence of the promotion and relegation system, every team needs every one of its 28 riders to be contributing throughout the year; there are only 120 points on offer for a Tour stage win, great as the publicity would be it wouldn't be much help if the team was demoted and didn't get any racing invites the next year. I'm a huge fan of the Missile but there's no getting around the fact that at his age he's going to need a very specialised and focused schedule, it's not as though he's a hungry young rider who could be picking you up 40 or 50 points every week.

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Sniffer replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
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Actually it is only the top 10 riders in a team that count in the team point standings, not the full 28 or 30.

The teams do need every rider to contribute, but that can be as a great lead out man or mountain domestique who doesn't score points.

In the current Astana line-up, who are going to be the riders that get big hauls of points?  Would Cav make the top 10?

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Rendel Harris replied to Sniffer | 1 year ago
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Sniffer wrote:

Actually it is only the top 10 riders in a team that count in the team point standings, not the full 28 or 30.

Yes, but at least as I understand it the rankings are calculated on a weekly basis with the team's best ten riders that week making up the points tally, the next week's points could come from ten completely different riders, so it's still vital to have every rider contributing. It's not the ten highest scoring riders over the year that make up a team's total but the cumulative totals of the best ten riders each week. Willing to stand corrected but I believe that's how it works.

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Sniffer replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
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The rankings may be updated weekly, but I am fairly sure it is the 10 best scoring riders across the year.

https://lanternerouge.com.au/2022/02/15/the-fight-for-survival-world-tou...

There were definitely articles written on lanternerouge describing riders earning points that didn't count as they were not in the teams top 10.

When Dylan Teuns moved to Israel-Premier Tech mis season not only did his points not follow him, but he didn't improve his new teams score until he had added 120 points to move into Israel's top 10.

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Rendel Harris replied to Sniffer | 1 year ago
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Yes looks like you're right - every day a learning day!

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maxdabrit replied to PRSboy | 1 year ago
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Should Cav break the record, a picture of him crossing the line would be used whenever the record is discussed. That is a sponsor's dream scenario. What the heck was Patrick Lefevre thinking? 

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mark1a replied to maxdabrit | 1 year ago
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I agree, and surprised that Specialized and/or Oakley didn't step in and offer Quick Step a way to make it (financially) happen. That line crossing photo would have had the big S on his shoulder and a pair of Oakley glasses above that big grin.

Specialized did something similar in 2017 after Tinkoff folded, leaving Peter Sagan without a ride, they effectively funded Bora Hangrohe to take him and his whole entourage. The bike supply followed him to Direct Energies too. I guess it wasn't just money that Lefevere was thinking of, may have been difficult with Jakobsen in the squad. 

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Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
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Do Astana have a decent roster of candidates for the lead out train?  No disrespect to Cav but it seems that part of his success (any sprinters) is down to the quality of the train...

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SimoninSpalding replied to Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
6 likes

To be fair whilst Cav has had brilliant lead out trains at times (e.g. HTC) one of his big strengths compared to some of his contemporaries is the ability to read the race and freelance a lead out to end up in the right place at the right time. 

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wtjs | 1 year ago
2 likes

Cav is a great cyclist who has nothing left to prove. He has given us all much joy. Good luck to him, but success this year doesn't have to include a stage win at The Tour- although I hope it does!

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mark1a | 1 year ago
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I hope Vinokourov leaves his 2012 Olympic road race medal at home. 

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