Chances of Contador staying at Astana high, says manager
Any deal will be for just one year
According to Alberto Contador's manager/brother, Francisco, the two-time Tour de 𝓡France champion is increasingly likely to stay with Astana for 2010.
Astana's ProTour application still not i෴n order, C꧒ontador free to go?
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Astana/Contador meeting to be held
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:UCI confirms Contador can lea꧃ve Astౠana
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Astana 💜says Contador will stay for 2🔯010
168澳🍬洲5最新开奖结果:Contador says his future will be decided soon
Contador dema🦩🍷nds strict anti-doping policies at Astana
Astana offer Contador up ဣto €8 million per year
Speaking to Spanish website Biciclismo, Francisco Contador revealed that the work of recently appointed team boss Yvon Sanquer at Astana had resulted in a "good impression" of the work being done. "Yvon Sanquer wants to do things in the right way and move the project forwards,"♋ said Contador.
However, he quickly added that there wer𝕴e still hurdles that needed to be crossed before a deal could finally be agreed between his brother and the Kazakh-backed team. "We're very close to Astana but it's not certai♕n," he explained. "If Astana receives a ProTour licence from the UCI the chances of Alberto staying with them are greater. If they don't, Alberto and the rest of the riders will leave."
He added that any deal with Astana would definitely only cover the 2010 season, no matter what the UCI's decision. "This is a new project [with Sanquer] and we don't know how it's going to work, so signing for any more than one year would be like goi🌜ng in with our eyes closed," Contador explained.
As for reports of an €8 million a year offer for four years from Astana, Contador said they were nothing more than a joke. "It's incredible. This weekend I was in Florence relaxing wi😼th my wife so it was impossible for me to have met with anyone as was said, and the figures and years mentioned were also lies," he declared. "They've got nothing to do with reality… It's like someone reporting now that Alberto is going to sign for Contentpolis-AMPO."
Contador refused to be drawn on which team is the favourite for Contador's signature if Astana don't retain his services. "Quick Step have s💃hown great interest, but so have the rest of the teams," he stated, adding that h🐎e will discuss all the options with his brother when the Tour champion returns to Madrid from the Caribbean on Thursday.
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Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014).