Double Tour de France champion Alberto Contador admitted today that he might stay with the Astana team in 2010, fulfilling the final year of a contract he has with the team.
“Evidently [racing with] Astana is another option and you have to think about that possibility,” Contador told the Spanish newspaper AS.
“[The options are] with Garmin or Caisse d'Epargne, but also Astana, with whom I still have a one year contract. It seems they are doing a new project that is taking shape.”
The UCI has stated that Contador’s existing contract with the team became void when Astana failed to meet the October 20th deadline for registration of documents, and many interpreted this as a way for the Spaniard to leave the squad. However he plays down such talk, saying that such a course of action is very complicated.
"They're coming out stories in the media about the possibility of my contract being terminated - as the team is not on the ProTour list of the UCI – as being very simple. I assure you it is not so simple.
“My future career is a bit being decided right now and I think that between this week and next, many of the doubts and unknowns that assail us now will be cleared."
While Contador’s statements don’t back up the earlier suggestions by Nikolai Proskurin, deputy president of the Kazakh Cycling Federation, that the Spaniard was already certain to stay, it appears more and more likely that he may once again race with the team in 2010.
He had been determined to leave but his doubts about the team will be assuaged somewhat by the measures that have been taken to guarantee its future, including the securing of additional sponsors plus the hiring of new management. A number of strong riders have also been signed up, replacing others who left to be part of the new Radio Shack team.
Read more about Astana's new Team Manager Yvon Sanquer.