Mark Cavendish is preparing for his 18th season in the pro peloton in 2024, returning with a strengthened Astana Qazaqstan team as he takes aim at a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win next summer.
Back in July, the Manxman was edging closer to the momentous task of overhauling Merckx, recording a second place on stage 7 in Bordeaux before fate intervened a day later. He crashed out of the race on the road to Limoges, the disappointment of not going out on his own terms only amplified by the pain of a broken collarbone.
His Astana Qazaqstan boss Alexander Vinokourov was quick to say that the team would welcome him putting off retirement, and three months later Cavendish made it official with the announcement that he'd extend his career.
Of course, returning to chase that Tour stage victory was a major factor in making that decision. However, speaking at Astana's pre-season training camp, Cavendish said that feeling "valued" and "happy" at the team was the main driver behind going again in 2024.
"I think the biggest factor was knowing I was valued," Cavendish told the assembled media at Astana's press day on Sunday. "It had been rather a few years since I felt valued, I guess, as a rider and off the bike as a teammate. And I was happy. It's ironic that the reason I wanted to start was because I was happy and enjoying cycling. I could finish knowing I was in love with the sport the same as it was when I started."
"Ironically, I'm carrying on because I'm happy and I love the sport. It took a while. It was just seeing where I came back from my injury more than more than anything. Alex [Vinokourov] asked me straight after I got back from the hospital if I wanted to carry on. That's nice."
"That's a team boss who has been a champion, has ridden a bike, and who understands. I just love it. I don't think I really have to have anything else to do in cycling. I can just enjoy it and that's a nice place to be."
Cavendish also said that his children were also part of the decision to keep racing, questioning his decision to call time on a career that has seen him rack up 162 wins. That second place in Bordeaux – Cavendish looked set to win before green jersey Jasper Philipsen sped past at the line – was another factor, he added.
"The ultimate call was with the kids – when I said I'm stopping, and they go 'What do you mean you're stopping? You can't do that,'" he said.
"That was quite a big factor. I have to set an example to them, and my philosophy has been 'never quit'. That has always been my fundamental first thing. OK, you have to stop your career sometime, but if they're like 'Well, why stop?', then why should I stop?"
"We were there with a team that was relatively new and working together and we were part of the sprints. We belong there in a sprint now."
"To make that in just a couple of short months was – even coming away without a win – it was a massive win for us as a team," he added. There's something there to work on and all these factors definitely played into it."
An old friend in a new-look lead-out train
Cavendish will enjoy a new-look lead-out train for 2024, with former QuickStep teammate and premier lead-out rider Michael Mørkøv coming aboard along with Davide Ballerini, Rüdiger Selig, and Max Kanter.
It remains to be seen how the train will shake out once racing resumes, but the familiarity of having Mørkøv racing in front of him will only help him chase more victories in 2024.
"He's the best lead-out man in the world, isn't he?" Cavendish said. "For sure, anybody that has Michael Mørkøv has a better chance to win a stage of the Tour de France. It's great – we've raced together since we were 14 years old. We've been through everything cycling at the same time even off the bike. Just like Renshaw was, he's the calm to my not so calm. There's a good balance in the room as well."
"It's always good. You don't have to look at what races you can try and work together to build on something with. You can kind of hit the ground running. It's definitely a benefit."
"Astana Qazaqstan historically hasn't really focused on sprints but we've got a team boss in Alex and a management that know bike racing. So it's not like they're clueless in what we would need. It's just that we've never really been in that direction. So, I have massive confidence and so far it seems to have been good that I've had that confidence because it feels nice here in December."
The Tour de France is Cavendish's biggest goal of the year – at the route presentation he said "It might be the hardest route I've ever seen" – and he'll start the run-up to July with a new experience as he heads to the Tour Colombia in February.
Cavendish said he's heading to the race, held next year for the first time since 2020, with altitude training in mind. It's not something he's done a lot of during his career – and he said he didn't have great experiences with it at his old team Dimension Data – but he noted that it's more or less a prerequisite to be on top form for races in modern cycling.
"To do a bit of altitude training, first and foremost," he said of his decision to start the race. "You can find places around Europe that do altitude but normally one of the teams with the massive budgets have booked the hotel for the whole year and stuff so you can't really do it. You have to find solutions elsewhere."
"I really haven't done that much altitude in my career but it's kind of you have to do now. It's not like you're getting a benefit from doing it. You're just not so much at the level if you don't do it now."
"I've been [to altitude training] a handful of times when it's been controlled and I've gone very well off it, and the times with Dimension Data when you're just left your own devices and it's kind of gone the other way. I know we've got people around here that know what they're doing with it, so we'll give it a go."
