After months of speculation, Mark Cavendish’s future team for 2023 has finally been confirmed, with Astana Qazaqstan announcing that the Manxman has inked a deal with the Kazakhstani WorldTour team.
Cavendish will therefore be able to fight for a record-beating 35th Tour de France stage win this summer with a WorldTour squad that has guaranteed participation in cycling’s biggest stage race.
Astana’s interest in signing Cavendish first became public in mid-December when team manager Alexander Vinokourov acknowledged to Cyclingnews that he had called Cavendish after the B&B Hotels project collapsed.
The 37-year-old then travelled to Spain to visit the team at their training camp as a contract was formalised, but Christmas and New Year came and went without an announcement.
On Tuesday afternoon, with Cavendish having joined the latest training camp in Spain, the team finally indicated that the Manxman will race for the team in 2023.
The team posted a photo of Cavendish on social media, with the caption: “Still waiting?” A formal announcement is expected shortly.
Cavendish’s last-minute signing for Astana Qazaqstan will see him join a squad which has won all three Grand Tours but whose line-up currently has a glaring lack of stage racing leaders.
Already seriously depleted after Vincenzo Nibali retired at the end of this season, the sacking of Miguel Angel López because of alleged connections to a doctor under investigation for doping, had left the Astana team bereft of experienced high-profile racers.
Dutchman Cees Bol (Team DSM) has also joined Astana Qazaqstan after being linked to the B&B Hotels team as part of Cavendish’s lead-out train.
The British sprinter will use a Wilier Triestina bike in 2023 after two seasons on a Specialized at QuickStep-AlphaVinyl. According to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, the Gastaldelli family, the owners of Wilier Triestina, were instrumental in providing part of the extra funding needed to bring Cavendish to Astana.
Confirmation of Cavendish’s move to Astana Qazaqstan follows months of speculation about his future after Soudal-QuickStep designated Fabio Jakobsen as their number-one sprinter for 2023 and also went on to sign Tim Merlier from Alpecin-Deceunink.
The French B&B Hotels project, potentially with several big-name sponsors on board and with Cavendish joining as team leader, had been announced on the last day of the 2022 Tour. But the sponsors were never confirmed and team manager Jérôme Pineau…
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