Mark Cavendish is on his way out from Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team, and the Manxman is likely to be a target of some teams for the coming transfer season. One squad has already shown it's interest.
In an interview with VeloNews at the Tour de France, EF Education-EasyPost's manager Jonathan Vaughters has said regarding the veteran: “Listen, I like Cav and I think that he would be a great story, and interesting to have on the team but there’s certainly no contract. Maybe Mark and I have different viewpoints on how things would work together but he’s a smart guy and I’ve actually talked to him a bunch over the last month," he admits.
"I like him. There could be a way of working together but as of right now the pieces don’t seem to be coming together. I’ve talked to him though," Vaughters added. Although a distant possibility, there are currently no offers or other teams who have expressed interest over the 37-year old, and the American team has the possibility of giving Cavendish the freedom if he were to join the team.
Much of this interest comes on the possibility of the record-breaking win at the Tour de France. “If he got that Eddy Merkcx record, he’s an icon in the sport. You can always make room but there’s lots of questions like do we have the guys to lead him out. Chasing that win is not an easy thing to do," Vaughters details however.
He added: “We’ll have a pretty large strategic shift for our team next year, for sure. We’ll have some good new talent coming aboard..." Richard Carapaz is given as a certainty to be joining the team next year giving back the team the opportunity to fight for a Grand Tour, however he stresses that the focus shall remain spread across multiple terrains.
“I don’t want the spirit of the team to shift to totally focusing on the GC, so that you forget everything else that you’re actually good at but I think we’ll have more of a GC focus than we’ve had in a bit," he concluded.
British Champion again!🤩 The National Championships is always a special race with a unique style. 9 years after my last title in Glasgow, it seems Scotland’s been good to me again ☺️ 200km, wind, rain, heavy roads =❤️ for me and tough, real racing. Thanks for all the messages 😘
