Astana Qazaqstan have split up their leaders Alexey Lutsenko and Mark Cavendish for the upcoming races in May, with the Kazakh climber taking on the Giro d’Italia as the Manxman gears up for his final Tour de France in Hungary.
Cavendish will start the Tour de Hongrie instead of the Giro as he continues to build up to the Tour where he will take aim at a record 35th stage victory which would place him alone at the top of the win list above Eddy Merckx.
The five-day Tour de Hongrie usually provides multiple sprint opportunities, ideal for the Manxman to find his best form after struggling with illness and not scoring a win since the Tour of Colombia in February.
The hilly profile of many of the stages at last week's Tour of Turkey meant Cavendish was unable to contest the sprints. The closest he came to success was on stage 7 when a mechanical problem meant Cavendish wasn't able to finish off the work of the Astana Qazaqstan lead-out.
Lutsenko will ride only his second Giro and lead an Astana squad also featuring Italian national champion Simone Velasco, former Giro stage winner Lorenzo Fortunato and Max Kanter after the German took his first pro win at the Tour of Turkey.
The Kazakh national champion pulled out of his last race at the Tour de Romandie due to illness after the first stage but has looked strong in 2024 with the overall win and a stage victory at the Giro d’Abruzzo alongside a top 10 at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
If Lutsenko takes a stage win, he will complete the set of Grand Tour victories after scoring victories at the Tour in 2020 and Vuelta in 2017.
Also facing off with Cavendish in Hungary will be top sprinters Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor), Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers).
Perhaps the most interesting name on the start list is Peter Sagan, who will be making his return to road racing after retiring from the discipline at the end of 2023. The three-time World Champion will race for Continental team Pierre Baguette Cycling, where his brother Juraj Sagan is a sports director.
Sagan underwent two heart surgeries and had a cardiac recording device implanted in 2024 after suffering a tachycardic episode while racing in Spain for the Specialized Factory Racing mountain bike team. His ambition for 2024 is to qualify for the MTB cross-country event at the Paris Olympics.
The Slovakian icon was one of Cavendish’s key rivals throughout his career with the paid often facing off at the Tour de France alongside the likes of Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel.
