Which team will Mark Cavendish race for in 2023?
Analysing the sprinter's future options in the wake of B&B Hotels' debacle
Christmas is coming and we are edging ever closer to the start of the new season at the Tour Down Under. Teams and riders are drawing up plans for 2023 and getting back into the swing of training.
However Mark Cavendish has to confirm if and where he will race in 2023. The Manxman, former world champion and 34-time Tour de France stage winner, is the last big-name in the peloton yet to confirm his future. Teams are close to completing their rosters for 2023 but sadly the B&B Hotels-KTM debacle means a number of riders have been forced to retire or scramble to find new teams.
B&B Hotels-KTM had been all-but-confirmed as Cavendish's destination for 2023, but will disappear the peloton next season or only race as a Continental team.
Astana Qazaqstan manager Alexandre Vinokourov has told Cyclingnews that he has contacted Cavendish but the Manxman appears to have other alternatives.
Cavendish's friend and former pro rider Pete Kennaugh recently said that the sprinting star has "definitely signed" a contract, without specifying where.
Here Cyclingnews has taken a look at the best candidates for Cavendish's signature.
Astana Qazaqstan
Alexandre Vinokourov told Cyclingnews that his Astana Qazaqstan squad would be happy to sign Cavendish for 2023. However, he emphasised that actual negotiations were nowhere near beginning yet.
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Astana Qazaqstan might not be at the top of Cavendish's desired teams but the squad perhaps has the budget and space on its roster to sign the Manxman after ending their contract with Colombian rider Miguel Angel López after receiving new information about his ties to Dr Marcos Maynar Mariño.
López rejected there were no new facts that could justify such a decision but the Colombian's loss could open the door to Cavendish racing in Astana sky blue and for a WorldTour team.
Astana Qazaqstan doesn't have the experience of riding for a sprinter but would give Cavendish a place in the WorldTour and so an automatic invitation to the Tour de France and other major races.
Human Powered Health
Dutch website WielerFlits has reported that Human Powered Health is preparing a contract offer for Cavendish.
The move is feasible. The US-registered ProTeam appears to have room on their 2023 roster and perhaps the budget to sign Cavendish. However it remains to be seen if Human Powered Health would secure a wild card invitation to the Tour de France.
The Tour de France organisers would surely love to see Cavendish try to beat the record number of Tour de France stage wins that he currently shares with Eddy Merckx but that might not be enough to secure Human Powered Health a golden ticket to the Tour de France.
The 18 WorldTour teams receive automatic invitations and Lotto Soudal and TotalEnergies have secured places thanks to topping the 2022 team rankings.
The disappearance of B&B Hotels means there are still two wild card places up for grabs. Israel-Premier Tech is likely to secure one of them, with Uno-X the next favourite. The Scandinavian team was ranked 22nd in the 2022 team ranking, while Human Powered Health was only 39th.
The team has shaken-up its roster, signing 12 new riders, while also losing a number of Americans. They are right to perhaps try to sign Cavendish but he arguably has other options.
B&B Hotels-KTM
Rumours of Cavendish making a move to the French ProTeam had been circulating since the summer, and as the months of the winter transfer window have dragged on, the move only seemed more and more like a done deal.
However, the team's future entered a doom loop and unravelled slowly over the past two months as team boss Jérôme Pineau fought a losing battle to find new sponsors to boost his budget and sign Cavendish and a solid lead-out train.
With the news that Pineau told the team's riders and staff that they were free to seek deals elsewhere, the certainty that Cavendish would line up for the Breton squad evaporated.
Cees Bol and Ramon Sinkeldam (who has now signed for Alpecin-Deceuninck) were rumoured to be signing along with Cavendish as the Manxman's lead-out train.
However, this move is now dead in the water with riders signing contracts elsewhere and the team unlikely to continue even at Continental level.
Israel-Premier Tech
Part of Pineau's ever-desperate attempts to save his team reportedly (denied by Pineau) included the Frenchman seeking a merger deal with Israel-Premier Tech, who are set to be relegated from the WorldTour to ProTeam level next year.
The Israeli team struggled mightily in 2022, scoring two big wins at the Tour de France but getting little out their big-name signings such as Jakob Fuglsang, Giacomo Nizzolo, and Chris Froome.
Israel-Premier Tech have long looked a logical landing destination for Cavendish, even if they won't be racing at the sport's top level next year. Team co-owner, billionaire Sylvan Adams, isn't afraid to splash money on star names even if they're heading towards the twilight of their careers.
However, the chances of Cavendish landing at the team, who would be among the favourites for a Tour de France wildcard spot next summer, appear to have ended.
With the signing of Stephen Williams from Bahrain Victorious, Israel-Premier Tech have announced their 2023 squad is complete at 28 riders.
With two roster places left unused, there's still technically a chance for Cavendish to end up in what looked like the most logical landing spot, but if the team say no more signings then we have to believe them at this stage.
Movistar
The Spanish team is an odd fit for Cavendish given that their roster is overwhelmingly aimed towards Grand Tours and general classification riding. The team hasn't often hired a top-level sprinter, but Fernando Gaviria has signed up following a tough couple of seasons at UAE Team Emirates.
Those factors didn't stop La Gazzetta dello Sport from linking Cavendish to a Movistar switch, though, with the sprinter's friendship with directeur sportif Max Sciandri seemingly the main focus of the report.
Movistar were swift to shut down any rumours of a Cavendish signing, taking to Twitter to "kindly remind everyone" that they had already confirmed their full squad of 30 riders for 2023.
Ineos Grenadiers
Could Cavendish return to Britain's only WorldTour squad?
He spent a year at the team a decade ago, capturing three Tour de France stage wins as Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome scored a one-two in Paris, surely the peak of the modern British cycling boom years.
Suggestions of a move back to Ineos seem very far-fetched, however. In recent seasons, the team has turned more and more towards youth, with next year's roster including 15 riders aged 25 or younger. Considering this, signing a 37-year-old rider seems an unlikely option.
The team does already employ a sprinter in the shape of Elia Viviani, though the Italian hardly enjoyed a vintage year. Elsewhere, their Grand Tour squad is in flux, with Geraint Thomas possibly riding his last season and nobody else looking ready to challenge the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar next July.
In theory, that lack of a 'Sky train' and clear-cut Tour winner could equal space for a sprinter. It would represent a huge change of plans for Ineos, though, and so a Cavendish comeback would be very unlikely. Yet it could, in theory, justify signing Cavendish for a final swansong season.
The rest
Aside from the now seemingly closed door at Israel-Premier Tech, there are few – if any – other contenders for Cavendish's signature among cycling's second division.
Lotto Dstny are set with Caleb Ewan and Arnaud De Lie, while the clutch of teams from Spain, Italy, Belgium and further afield wouldn't be able to afford his salary even if they could guarantee a Tour de France wildcard.
Uno-X are chasing a Tour de France wild card place but have never made a move for Cavendish, having signed Norwegian Alexander Kristoff. TotalEnergies, meanwhile, should be at the Tour but already have a well-paid star in Peter Sagan.
Among the 2023 WorldTour teams, seven are at their full roster of 30 for next year, including EF Education-EasyPost, Astana Qazaqstan, and BikeExchange-Jayco, while the rest all have between one and three spaces yet to be confirmed.
Some of those teams – Soudal-QuickStep, Groupama-FDJ, UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo-Visma among them – make very little sense as far as a Cavendish transfer goes.
A few of the rest are somewhat more plausible options. Bahrain Victorious are at 27 confirmed riders for next year and, despite Phil Bauhaus enjoying a career-best season with two WorldTour wins, lack a star sprinter. Cavendish did spend 2020 with the team, though with his former mentor Rod Ellingworth (now at Ineos) no longer on board there, a reunion looks unlikely.
Arkéa-Samsic, who will step up to the WorldTour next season, were another possibility with a ready-made lead-out train and a departing star in Nairo Quintana. However, the team is full at 30 riders with the arrival of Italian sprinter Luca Mozzato.
Looking around the rest of the WorldTour, one or two spaces remain at AG2R Citroën, Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, and UAE Team Emirates all boast one or two spaces left in their squads, though none of them have been linked to Cavendish's signature. Trek-Segafredo have one spot but it can only be taken up by a neo-pro, per UCI rules and have ruled out a move for Cavendish.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur. She writes and edits at Cyclingnews as well as running newsletter, social media, and how to watch campaigns.