Deceuninck-QuickStep sport director Brian Holm told Danish media that he is looking forward to working again with Mark Cavendish at the Belgian WorldTour team next season. The British sprinter, whose contract with Bahrain McLaren was not renewed, will work with Holm again at Patrick Lefebvre's team, which he was with from 2013 to 2015.

Holm and Cavendish's relationship as DS riders was established when Cavendish rode for T-Mobile as a stadia rider in 2006 and joined permanently in 2007. The two then went their separate ways when the team closed at the end of 2011, with Holm joining Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Cavendish moving to Team Sky.

A year later, the two reunited for three seasons at Omega Pharma-Quick Step, but Cavendish moved to Dimension Data in 2016 and joined Bahrain McLaren this season.

"It's the homecoming of the prodigal son," Holm told Danish cycling website Feltet.dk in an interview published Monday. He is glad that his last race will not be this year's Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne, where he was forgotten by his team and had to be dropped off at the airport."

Cavendish will be a useful addition to the team in many ways, Holm said, and he feels that the new approach could work to his advantage.

"My idea is to bring him into the team as a neo-pro and have him work for the team in races from "kilometers zero" and make him stronger. That way, later in the season, he will have a chance to win the championship himself."

"Mark will be proud to work for the team and will relish his new role. Even if it is a younger rider on the team like Mikel Honoré.

"If he has the legs, he could serve as a lead-out (for the other sprinters on the team), and he always has ideas for stages and pre-race team meetings. He also knows how a group sprint is done and knows what to expect before it happens," said the retired Danish pro.

"Mark has been under a lot of pressure as a sprinter for many years. It is sometimes forgotten how much pressure a sprinter is under in this role.

"Marcel Kittel was the same way," Holm continued, referring to the German sprinter, also with Quick Step, who retired at only 31 years old. He couldn't handle the pressure and broke down."

Holm added that he does not believe at this time that Cavendish, who was handed a one-year contract, has any chance of riding this year's Tour de France, which he has not ridden since 2018, despite his 30 stage wins at La Grand Boucle.

However, Holm added that it is not only the performance aspect that Cavendish brings to Dečuninck-Quick Step; the 35-year-old also has other qualities that the team will benefit from. [Having Mark on the team makes me look forward to going to bike races. He's a very funny guy, so when we can laugh about things, it makes life a little easier."

"He's a very funny guy, so when we can laugh about things, it makes life a little easier.

"All of his teammates love him. In that respect, he's like Lars Bak," Holm said, comparing Cavendish to the now-retired Bak, who will lead the Uno X women's team in 2022.

"I remember Mark saying in an interview in 2010 that he didn't think Andre Greipel would win a stage of the Tour de France.

"The following year, on a stage of the Tour, Greipel beat him by half a meter: 'Brian, sometimes you have to tell me to shut up. So he has the ability to laugh at himself .