Previously this transfer window, Astana made a generous offer to Kaden Groves, who was in doubts about renewing his contract in Alpecin-Deceuninck and staying in the shadow of Jasper Philipsen. But rather surprisingly, the 25-year-old
chose to stay. With no other options available on the market, manager Alexander Vinokourov had to look for riders who are potentially unsatisfied at their current workplace.
According to
WielerFlits, it seems like he might have found just that in another Australian - Caleb Ewan. Breaking his contract at Lotto Dstny at the end of 2023, the pocket rocket made a glorious return to Jayco AlUla, where he kicked off his professional career ten years ago. However unable to make the ends meet in the biggest competitions, Ewan was overshadowed by Dylan Groenewegen, who had won a Tour stage this year. Meanwhile Ewan only striked three times; once in Oman and twice in Spain (Vuelta a Burgos and Vuelta a Castilla y Leon).
There's only catch - Ewan is bound by a two-year contract and in order to make a switch for Astana, he'll need to find an agreement with his employer. At the end of the day, this could be a quite costy transfer for the new Chinese backers of Astana. But then again, what good is a sprint train without a sprinter to finish off the work? The pressure to find a replacement for Mark Cavendish is high.