The Astana Kazakstan team had only a few opportunities in competition to refine Mark Cavendish's lead out formation, but the team showed more positive signs at Wednesday's Scheldepri, sending the British champion to the podium The team's first win of the season came in the final race of the season in the Bavarian Grand Prix.

Cavendish is looking to break cycling's most prestigious record for most stage wins in the Tour de France this year, and his result broke the record for most podiums in Scheldeprij.

Cavendish has competed in this race eight times since 2007 and has been on the podium seven times. He was tied with Belgian Ernest Stelks, who had six podium finishes between 1946 and 1954.

"I'm happy. When you have another record, you always want to do the best you can when you can," Cavendish said in a post-race interview.

"We have a young guy on the team, Gleb Silica, who is a sprinter. When I first won in Scheldepri, he was six years old. Now we are racing together. Time flies."

Time may have passed, but it was the old Cavendish who showed up in Schoten on Wednesday, the 37-year-old unafraid to elbow his way to the front of Schoten, sprinting strongly in what was likely his fourth win in this Pro Series, dubbed the "sprinter's world championship." Only Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Deceuninck) and Sam Welsford (Team DSM) were faster, as they exploited a slight gap to take the top two places.

"I tried to stay with Edward Zaunce, but I had to fight a bit with Dylan Groenewegen, and with 450m to go I was already in the wind. So I had to go quite a long way from where I normally wanted to go. Then Jasper came running really fast," Cavendish said.

Cavendish was happy to be on the podium, but he was even more impressed with his team's work.

"It was great to be on the podium with Jasper and Sam, and I took positives from the team ride and the sprint," Cavendish said in a post-race interview.

Astana may not have been as dominant as his former team, Quick Step, but they managed to put Cavendish at the front of the group sprint. Soudal-Quick Step and Lotto Doustony, with Fabio Jacobsen and Caleb Yuan, were not so lucky.

"We were all fresh for the final and we knew it was going to be a dangerous race," Cavendish said. 'So we tried to get out in front pretty early. It's better to be there and be safe than to try to lead out at the end."

"I think it's more important for the team to come together and get deep into the sprint than the result. As you can see, everyone was very on point and very impressive.

"Scheldeprijs can go one of two ways. Quick Step and Lotto dominated most of the race. You also need luck. Today we got lucky.

The result, along with a podium in the first stage of the UAE Tour, means that Cavendish is aiming to break the record for most stage wins at the Tour de France in July, tying Eddy Merckx's record of 34 set in 2021.

It is also a sign that his last-minute move to Astana after their failed attempts to sign the Pinault brothers and the now-defunct B&B Hotels team's entry into the World Tour is not a dead-end road.

Asked what his podium in Scheldeprij tells him about his chances of setting a Tour de France record, Cavendish declined to speculate." I'm always happy with the result, but it doesn't matter what happens in July."

The next step toward the Tour de France is next week's Giro di Sicilia, followed by the Giro d'Italia, where he won a stage last year.