Mark Cavendish did not secure a result in his first bunch sprint of 2023 with new team Astana Qazaqstan at the Tour of Oman but the squad turned in a solid performance throughout the entire stage and the finish, suggesting they can provide the Manxman with a leadout can launch him to victory.
The Kazakh squad combined forces with Soudal-QuickStep to keep the attacks under control on the only flat stage of the 2023 Tour of Oman, run over the same route as last year’s opener, where Cavendish finished second behind Fernando Gaviria.
Estonian Martin Laas lead out Cavendish for the first time. He revealed afterwards that after coming through a chaotic last few kilometres in the bunch unscathed there was a moment where “maybe we messed up a little bit on the lead-out for it to be perfect.”
Cavendish crossed the line in 21st place, but the team came away with a lot of positives to build for future sprint battles.
“The stage in itself went well in my opinion, because we controlled the race with QuickStep,” team sports director Stefano Zanini told Cyclingnews afterwards.
“Boaro was very good in particular. We did a great job, one of those that people watching at home on television never get to see. Even going into the last kilometres, right down to the last bend with 500 metres to go, it was good. I can only praise the squad. If we start like this, we can do well.”
Cavendish had praised his new team in a brief interview before the stage.
“We’ve got a really nice team here, a really good kind of vibe. Starting here is a new thing for the team to do bunch sprints, but there’s no pressure on them,’ he told the Tour of Oman.
“I was second on this stage, I know the finish, so we’ll try. Lutsenko has won twice here, so obviously GC is important for us here, but we’ll give it a shot.”
Cavendish did not talk after the stage finish but Laas pointed out the good and bad points of their performance.
“Until the last part it was more or less under control, then in the last four kilometres it was super sketchy, and although we rode quite perfect together with the team, from three until one we lost each other a little bit because it was really, really chaotic, a big mess there,” Laas said.
“We managed to come back together and then we did quite a good job for the final, but then in the end maybe we messed up a little bit with the leadout for it to be perfect.”
“But we tried our best and this was our first race with Cav, our first time together basically even in training. So it takes a little bit of time in the end, I think we did good today.”
Cavendish and the team now have four more hilly stages of the Tour of Oman where they will be working for former double winner Alexey Lutsenko and his GC bid, prior to heading to the UAE Tour next week - and a much larger number of sprints.
