The team said that Mark Cavendish's decision to continue racing for another season and fight to break Eddie Merck's all-time record for the Tour de France stage win was good news not only for Astana-Kazakhstan but also for the sport in general. "It's a very important thing," says Alexander Vinokurov, the manager of the project.

The British sprinter was due to retire at the end of the season, but after crashing out of the Tour de France this summer and fracturing his collarbone, Astana officially confirmed that he would race in another year instead.

Cavendish will now return to the race on the Turkish Presidential cycling tour, but after such a long spell away will be riding for his own victory or to support other candidates in the team depending on his condition, Vinokurov told Cyclingnews.

As for 2024, the team has not yet decided on a specific race program other than the tour. However, Vinokourov also said he expects there will also be some changes to Cavendish's training schedule, perhaps with spells at altitude camp in Colombia. As Vinokourov said, the important thing is that Cavendish is ready to return to the race and fight.

"When I spoke to Mark after his accident, I said that I believed that crashing like that was not the way a champion as big as him would end his career," Vinokourov told cyclingnews.

"I offered him to continue and do another year and do the last Tour de France, and he spent good things thinking about it. Of course, he spoke with the family, but the decision to continue for another 1 year is great news not only from the point of view of sponsorship, but also for the sport itself "

All clouds have a silver lining, and one big advantage for Astana Qazaqstan and Cavendish Vinokourov is that they will be able to win the next. With much more time to plan the season 2022, Cavendish's sign was very last minute and they could hardly sign any more riders beyond Britton himself.

In stark contrast, on Wednesday's news, both Cavendish's former lead-out man Michael Mørkøv and Soudal-QuickStep trainer Vasilis Anastopoulos will be joining the team, with the latter performing

"Already after the tour we have spoken with Mark." I said that I will do my utmost to try to change things," Vinokourov said. "On this year's tour, we lacked the last man in the sprint," he said.

"But in the future, there will be Cees Bol, [Yevgeni]Fedorov, [Alexey]Lutsenko and [new signing Davide] Ballerini as riders who can play a solid role for us" - at the time of speaking, the new signing Michael Mørkøv was not officially confirmed, but he will certainly be in that equation. It will form a part of the "tour", as well as the classic."

The desire to go ahead and look ahead from the 2023 season is strong, says Vinokourov. "We had a lot of illnesses in the team, guys crashed, etc. There is not much we can do under such circumstances, but it is true that it was a bit of a catastrophe for us."

One of the few, very major, bright spots came to the Giro d'Italia, Vinokourov said that Cavendish won the biggest win of the season in Astana on the last day of the race and that many of the team's main focus in 2024 will refocus on what Cavendish can achieve. There is no doubt that this is the case.

"It is true that the victory gave him a lot of confidence," says Vinokourov. "And on the tour, before he crashed, we had some real near misses. I hope it motivates him again."As I said to Mark, if your head is still in it, the rest of you are still in it. If you want another season, you can. That's what your head tells you what matters.

Cavendish will ride on the tour of Türkiye (10 May 8-15) but, as Vinokourov says, "It's mainly because he needs to finish the year in the race with his feet. If he does it, the next year he will be in shape faster.

"It may not be to win, but to help [sprinter Gleb]Syritsa or Cees Bol, even if Andrey Lutsenko goes to GC, he has good form.

"Next season we will look at the second half and we are doing team building camp on the 19th and 20th and we will decide there. However, there are some changes in the training schedule compared to this year. We are doing some things differently."

Vinokourov does not know whether Cavendish will return to the Giro," he says, but it will be important to build for the start of the season as well as the Tour de France where he could do more training camps at altitude. We've been talking about camping in Colombia, we'll see."

For 2024 and beyond, come2025Vinokourov strongly hopes that Cavendish will continue to play a role in the team. Various projects have been published in the media, including the sprint development team, but as Vinokourov says, nothing has yet been decided and various options At the same time, the quest for a second sponsor for the team continues to be an important part of his future goals as well. But with Cavendish firmly on board for next season, the main sporting objective of 2024 has become clear.