Lance Armstrong’s Astana team likely to survive for now, but Tour still in question

Armstrong’s Astana team still in doubt for Tour

AVELLINO, Italy — Lance Armstrong’s financially strapped Astana team will likely survive for another few weeks, but it’s unclear if it will make it to the Tour de France.

The International Cycling Union had set a Sunday deadline for the team to straighten out its financial situation or risk suspension.

“I think they’ll meet the deadline,” UCI president Pat McQuaid told The Associated Press on Friday. “The deadline we’ve given them is a bank-guarantee deadline and the payments are up to schedule.”

Astana receives most of its financial support from Kazakh state holding company Samruk-Kazyna, but the Central Asian nation’s economy has been badly hit by the ongoing global financial crisis.

“There’s still no guarantees that the team will ride the Tour de France,” McQuaid said, adding that the UCI has not received any long-term assurances from Kazakhstan.

While Armstrong is riding for free this season, the rest of the team’s riders were missing two months of salary. The missed payments have forced Armstrong and seven other team members to protest by wearing jerseys with the sponsor names faded out in the Giro.

“They’ve paid sums of money in recent weeks,” McQuaid said before the start of the 19th stage of the Giro.

Armstrong indicated before the Giro that he was talking to U.S.-based sponsors about taking over the team himself.

The Texan returned this season after 3½ years of retirement and is planning to go for an eighth Tour title in July.

“There was a deadline for the bank guarantee and for the payments, but we’ve asked for other things since then,” McQuaid said. “We’ve also asked the Kazakhs for other guarantees about the team for the rest of the year.”

If Astana does not present long-term guarantees, it could lose its ProTour license.

“The license commission meets in mid-July and that’s when any decision will be made,” McQuaid said.

The Tour begins July 4.

Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel is planning to meet with McQuaid this weekend about the squad’s future.

“We don’t know yet what it’s going to be called, but hopefully it’s called Astana,” Bruyneel said. “That would be the easiest.”

Bruyneel added that star rider Alberto Contador has no plans to leave the team.

“I spoke with him yesterday at length,” Bruyneel said. “There’s not a single thought in his mind (to leave).”