After Mark Cavendish dropped out of the Tour de France on Saturday with a broken collarbone, his team manager, Alexander Vinokurov, told the French newspaper L'Équipe that Astana Kazakstan has postponed the British rider's retirement for a year to 2024. He said he hopes to compete in the race.

The 38-year-old Cavendish signed with Astana Kazakstan earlier this season after months of speculation about where he would race in 2023, winning the final stage of this year's Giro d'Italia in Rome.

Vinokurov told the newspaper that it would be up to Cavendish to decide whether he would fight for a 35th stage win at the 2024 Tour de France, and that the team was "ready to offer him" this possibility, although the idea had not yet been proposed directly to him.

A day after Cavendish finished second in the sprint in Bordeaux, his best result of the year, he crashed on stage 8 about 60 km from the finish line and abandoned the race, breaking his right collarbone.

On Sunday morning, Astana Kazakstan tweeted how Cavendish said goodbye to his teammates one by one before returning to the team hotel and flying home after spending the night in the hospital.

L'Équipe reported that Cavendish "may postpone his retirement" after it was announced at the Giro d'Italia that the season was over.

"Yes, I would like Mark to stay active in 2024 and compete in his 15th Tour de France and win his 35th stage," Vinokurov said. 'Myself, I broke my femur in the 2011 Tour, and that was supposed to be my last year. But I didn't want to end my career like that."

"I kept going and worked hard to get to the point where I could win the London Olympics the next year. Mark has the same mentality and the willpower to achieve his ultimate goal. We are ready to offer him that chance. But it's up to him to decide."