Contador in Contact with Caisse d'Epargne, Other Teams for 2010
Spaniard Alberto Contador has had contact with Team Caisse d'Epargne, Team QuickStep, Team Garmin-Slipstream and Team Liquigas about riding for them next year.
Spaniard Alberto Contador has had contact with Team Caisse d'Epargne, Team QuickStep, Team Garmin-Slipstream and Team Liquigas about riding for them next year, the Tour de France champion was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"Yes there are some contacts with those teams," Contador told Spanish sports daily As. "They are all good options for next year," Contador added.
Contador is currently waiting for legal advice before deciding whether to quit his Astana team. He is under contract with the Kazakh-funded outfit until 2010 but they have not yet been granted a ProTour license by the International Cycling Union (UCI) for next year.
Contador told As he might still opt to stay with Astana, although he said Caisse d'Epargne would be "an excellent option" because of the number of Spanish riders there.
"Even though they (Team Astana) don't yet have a license, the new people seem serious to me," he said.
"There are still some very good riders at Astana and with a couple of reinforcements I can approach the Tour with guarantees. "Let's see what happens because we have to study everything carefully."
UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani said on Friday that Contador could leave Astana under the governing body's rules, which state that a rider is free to go if his team have not had their ProTour license renewed by October 20.