"Merlier 9/4 Across The Closing Two Flat Opening Days On A Closing Twin-Card Sprint Brief Alongside Cavendish, And This Reads As The Cleanest Single-Most-Explicit Veszprém-Balaton Pre-Tour Build The XDS Astana Sprint Project Has Tabled" — XDS Astana Confirm Full 2026 Tour de Hongrie Seven-Rider Squad
Saturday late evening Astana — four days from the Wednesday 13 May Veszprém Grand Départ, XDS Astana have closed their full 2026 Tour de Hongrie seven-rider squad on the cleanest single-most-explicit Merlier-led Hungarian-corridor sprint brief the Kazakh operation have tabled across the closing post-2025 reset window. The squad reads Merlier, Cavendish, Bol, Ballerini, Fedorov, Scott, and Tejada — combined Tour de Hongrie stage-and-jersey probability now reads at 52%, the closing single-roster line the Kazakh operation have ever banked at the four-days-out checkpoint of the Hungarian race in the closing post-Lutsenko era.
Tim Merlier opens the closing twin-card opening-day sprint outright at 9/4 across the closing two flat opening Veszprém-and-Balaton corridor days, with Mark Cavendish, returning from his closing six-week post-Hainan classics-pivot block, holding the closing secondary card at 7/2 on a closing single-rider Hungarian-corridor lead-out brief that reads as the cleanest single-most-explicit Cavendish reference the closing 2026 ProSeries calendar has tabled. The closing twin-card Merlier-Cavendish brief reads as the closing single-most-considered XDS Astana sprint reference the operation have committed since the closing 2024 Cavendish Tour de France record-breaking window.
The closing 2026 XDS Astana operating model formally locks Merlier onto the closing single-rider sprint-and-Tour-de-France-prep brief that reads as the cleanest closing Belgian-sprinter reference the Kazakh operation has fielded since the closing pre-2024 transition window. Cavendish, now 41 and inside the closing third year of his closing post-record-breaking-Tour-de-France window, opens his closing first 2026 European stage-race start on a closing single-rider lead-out brief that reads as the cleanest single-rider closing-week post-Hainan reference the British 36-stage-Tour-de-France record holder has carried.
Cees Bol and Davide Ballerini anchor the closing rouleur-and-lead-out group, with Yevgeniy Fedorov handling the closing single-rider home-Kazakh closing-week wind-protection brief. Cameron Scott opens his closing first XDS Astana Tour de Hongrie start on a closing single-rider Australian-rouleur reference, while Harold Tejada handles the closing single-rider Mátraszentimre climbing-domestique brief on a closing 11/2 GC outsider line that reads as the cleanest single-rider Colombian closing-week climbing reference the operation have banked across the closing post-2024 Almaty altitude block.
The closing seven-rider XDS Astana brief sits inside the closing post-Eschborn-Frankfurt one-week-stage-race window that, with the closing 2026 Tour de Hongrie now formally locked as a closing pre-Tour de France build reference for both Merlier and Cavendish, reads as the cleanest single-rider Hungarian-corridor closing-week reference the operation have ever banked. The closing 2025 XDS Astana Hungarian-corridor reference closed on a Cavendish stage-two sprint runner-up and a Merlier stage-three sprint third, with the closing 2026 brief now opening on a closing twin-card stage-and-jersey reference that reads at 52% combined probability across the closing five-stage Hungarian-corridor window.
The closing pre-race public-market book opens with Merlier at 9/4 the closing secondary stage-win sprint outright behind Welsford at 2/1 across the closing two opening flat days, and ahead of Brennan at 5/2 the closing tertiary card. The closing twin-card XDS Astana combined stage-and-jersey probability of 52% reads as the closing fourth-highest single-roster line behind Picnic-PostNL at 64%, Lidl-Trek at 58%, and Visma-Lease a Bike at 47% on the closing four-days-out public-market checkpoint.
The closing Wednesday 13 May Veszprém opening flat-day reads as the cleanest single-rider sprint launch corridor the closing 2026 Tour de Hongrie has tabled, with the closing 4.2-kilometre Veszprém Old Town finishing-circuit profile reading as the closing single-most-explicit lead-out test the Merlier-Cavendish twin-card brief has been handed across the closing post-2024 transition window. The closing 250-metre Veszprém Old Town finishing straight reads as the cleanest single-corner positioning corridor the race has fielded across the closing six-edition window.
The closing pre-race team presentation lands at the closing Veszprém Old Town main square at 18:00 CET Tuesday 12 May, with the closing first-rider-down-the-ramp Wednesday opening flat-day Veszprém-Balaton roll-out at 12:00 CET. The closing TV broadcast window opens at 13:00 CET on Eurosport 2 and HUN's M4 Sport, with the closing post-stage ledger refresh landing by 18:30 CET on the closing UCI ProSeries Eastern European stage-race public-market post.