Mark Cavendish’s quest to take the stage record victory in the Tour de France this summer will be backed by an impressive lineup of support riders, including Michael Mørkøv, widely rated as the best lead-out man in the world.
The full lineup was released by Cavendish’s Astana Qazaqstan squad on Monday, with the British winner of 34 Tour de France stages as the headline act.
Cavendish, 39, will be backed by Mørkøv, his former teammate at QuickStep who was key support for the Briton when he last won on the Tour back 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 figure in his Tour de France lead-out train.
The team will also have options in the battle for stage victories in the mountains with Harold Tejada and Alexey Lutsenko, the latter a winner in a Tour de France summit finish in the Massif Centrale back in 2020. Both the Colombian and the Kazakh could toggle between fighting for their own chances and providing support for Cavendish to get through the hillier days. Lutsenko has twice taken top ten finishes as well in the Tour’s GC, so he may get to fight for an overall placing.
Having made a considerable effort to build the sprint train for Cavendish over the winter, the overall lineup is a much stronger formation than in 2023, when he came painfully close to taking a stage win prior to crashing out with a broken collarbone.
Apart from Cavendish, Bol, Lutsenko, Fedorov and Tejada are back in the squad for a second year running, but the other three - Mørkøv, Ballerini and Gazzoli - are all extra support signed to help the Briton.
As in 2023, Cavendish will have Mark Renshaw - his own former lead-out man who has been working all year behind the scenes with the Briton specifically to build up the sprint train - named as one of the team’s sports directors for the Tour.
The main focus, in any case, will be on Cavendish, looking to add the record-breaking stage win on the six or seven opportunities that should arise for the bunch sprinters this summer. The first chance will likely come on the stage 3 finish 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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