Cav and Astana going all in for 2024

Former Quick Step DS Brian Holm believes Manxman will look to bring the curtain down on his illustrious career after next year's Olympic Games

- Tom Thewlis

With a flurry of signings it has become all but certain that star sprinter Mark Cavendish will continue riding into 2024. His attempt to land a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win ended prematurely with a crash this summer. Now, former Quick Step directeur sportif Brian Holm believes that Cavendish will look to bring the curtain down on his glittering career after next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

Holm mentored Cavendish at both HTC-High Road and Patrick Lefevere’s Quick Step team and the pair have remained good friends.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, the 60-year-old Danish expro and coach explained that the Manxman won’t just be satisfied with potentially breaking the record for the most stage wins at the Tour next year. Holm believes his former charge will have one eye on Paris 2024 too, particularly due to his history of winning on the iconic Champs-Élysées at the Tour de France.

“Of course he will. Why shouldn’t he?” Holm said when asked by CW if he thinks Cavendish will take aim at an Olympic medal next year. “Nothing is official but I’ve always said, I’ve always believed without even knowing because I never spoke to him about it. But I would say his big ambition is to do Paris, to do the Olympics.

“I don’t know if he’d get in the track team,” Holm added. “It’s [Matt] Brammeier [British Cycling coach] who decides if they want him or not, they didn’t take him last time for sure. But I just know that’s his ambition, he’s a winner. When you have to train, you need some goals and a goal could be the Olympics, and a goal will be the Tour de France.”