'It's not over yet' – Mark Cavendish to continue racing in 2024

In a pair of videos posted on Wednesday morning, Astana Qazaqstan confirmed that British sprinter Mark Cavendish will ride on in 2024 and target the Tour de France, in search of the historic stage victory that would take him past Eddy Merckx to hold the stage win record outright.

Since he crashed out of this summer's Tour de France on stage 8, speculation has been rife as to whether Cavendish would continue with his plans to retire at the end of 2023 or extend his career for another year to enjoy a sweeter goodbye from the race that has defined his illustrious career.

GCN that the Manxman's retirement would be postponed, with sources indicating that Cavendish would target the 2024 Tour de France. These beliefs have rung true, with Astana Qazaqstan releasing a video on social media that is full of footage of Cavendish and the Tour de France, and is captioned 'It's not over yet.'

Read more: All signs point to Mark Cavendish racing the 2024 Tour de France

Astana Qazaqstan followed up this tweet with a video interview with Cavendish, in which he explained his reasons for continuing in 2024. It means that the plans Cavendish put into place at the Giro d'Italia will be shelved for at least another season.

"Well, I guess that was me done this year. I announced my retirement, I was looking forward to not having to get up and train in every weather condition and not be away from home, and spend time with the kids," Cavendish noted.

"The first thing Vino [Alexander Vinokourov] said to me when I crashed out of the Tour de France was 'why don't you do another year?'

"The more I've ridden this summer, I just love riding my bike..." he continued. "I spoke to the kids and I said, 'what should dad do?' He said 'carry on, it's not a question.' So, here we are, just one more year, hey!"

The allure of a proper goodbye to the Tour de France proves too strong

Back in May, Cavendish held a press conference on the Giro d'Italia's final rest day, in which he announced his retirement from professional cycling at the end of 2023. He confirmed he would ride his final Tour de France and acknowledged that he still felt capable of winning stages at the race in which he has taken 34 victories, making him the joint record holder alongside Eddy Merckx.

After winning stage 21 of the Giro, Cavendish looked more than a match for the world's best sprinters in July and came ever so close to winning stage 7 of the Tour de France, before a mechanical put paid to those hopes as Jasper Philipsen stormed past him in the closing metres.

A fairytale goodbye to the Tour de France it was not to be, with the 38-year-old crashing hard the following day and withdrawing from the race with a broken collarbone. Having appeared in fine form in this year's Tour, all eyes then turned to whether or not Cavendish would postpone his plans to retire.

Read more:

• Sean Kelly: I can’t see Mark Cavendish returning to the Tour de France
• Mark Cavendish back riding alongside Chris Froome as Astana director praises ‘champion’ sprinter ahead of return

Whilst next year's Tour de France does not end in Paris, due to the Olympic Games, Cavendish must surely want a sweeter goodbye to the race than an innocuous crash that resulted in a tearful early departure this summer.

With Astana Qazaqstan's announcement, the man known as the 'Manx Missile' is set to continue racing in 2024 and at the age of 39 next summer, target more victories in the world's biggest race.

Before the end of the season, however, Cavendish is expected to ride the Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye, starting on October 8.