Astana Qazaqstan has confirmed that triple Scheldeprijs winner Mark Cavendish will not be taking part in the race this year after illness saw the Briton miss out on several Classics this spring.
Cavendish won the largely flat Classic, held midweek between the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, in 2008, 2011 and 2014. He will instead race the Tour of Türkiye in the second half of April, followed by the Tour de Hongrie in early May as he builds towards the summer and the Tour de France.
Cavendish started the season well with a stage win in his first race of the year, the TourColombia, but since then he has been held back by illness and bad luck at various races. He finished outside the time limit on stage 6 of Tirreno-Adriatico and then abandoned at Milano-Torino.
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His non-participation in Scheldeprijs means he will not have taken part in any northern Classics this season, unlike in 2023, where he finished third behind Jasper Philipsen and Sam Welsford after a series of DNFs in other Belgian one-day races.
The British sprinter took part in the eight-day Tour of Türkiye last year – when the race had an early October slot on the calendar, prior to moving back to April this season – as part of his recovery plan from his crash and broken collarbone in the Tour de France.
Although Cavendish did not get any wins in Türkiye in 2023, he has taken a total of 11 in previous editions, most recently four in 2021.
“After being sick for several weeks following Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-Turin, Mark Cavendish has resumed his training, continuing his preparation for his biggest goals of the season,” said Vasilis Anastopoulos, Head of Performance of Astana Qazaqstan in a press release.
“The team has adapted the racing plan, and as a result, Mark will miss the Scheldeprijs and will instead spend some time at a training camp. After that, he plans to compete in the Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye and then the Tour de Hongrie.”
Astana Qazaqstan will be one of four WorldTour teams in the 2.HC, 1,253km event, which starts in Antalya on Sunday, April 21st and finishes a week later in Istanbul. Bora-Hansgrohe, Alpecin-Deceuninck and DSM-Firmenich are the other three WorldTour teams participating.
At Scheldeprijs, where Cavendish took third last year before heading to the Giro d’Italia, the squad will now be led by sprinters Gleb Syritsa, Rüdiger Selig and Cees Bol. Top lead-out man Michael Mørkøv, signed by Astana over the winter to work with Cavendish, will also be present.
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