Contador waits on lawyers over leaving Astana

Paris: Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is waiting for legal advice before deciding whether to break his contract with his Astana team, the Spanish rider said on Friday.

Contador is under contract to Kazakh-funded Astana until 2010 but has repeatedly said he would like to leave to join a team with the capacity to support him in a bid for a third Tour de France victory next year. “After all these months of waiting, I am very calm at last,” Contador said in a statement. “My lawyers are the ones who will say whether it is possible to break my contract or not. I hope to know their opinion as soon as possible, as well as experts from the UCI, in order to make a decision.“Meanwhile, I keep working as before, focused exclusively on my training.” Late on Thursday, the UCI published a list of teams who had been granted a ProTour licence, which gives them the right to take part in the biggest races. Astana, along with Team Sky, Caisse d’Epargne, Saxo Bank and Euskaltel Euskadi, were not on the list, although they have until Nov. 20 to meet the UCI’s requirement for a ProTour licence.The governing body’s regulations state that a rider is free to go if his team has not had their licence renewed by Oct. 20. “A rider may terminate the present contract, without notice nor liability for damages (...) if, on 20 October of the year preceding a year of registration covered by the present contract, the UCI ProTeam has not submitted a registration file containing the essential documents,” the regulations state. The UCI and Astana were not immediately available for comment. Contador, who is one of five riders to win the three Grand Tours -- France, Italy and Spain -- has been contacted by Quick Step and has also expressed an interest in the Garmin-Slipstream and Caisse d’Epargne teams. His brother and agent, Fran Contador, said in a statement: “Our lawyers are studying the details of the UCI regulations to make the right decision in coming days. “Lawyers should clarify whether it is possible to implement the new article introduced last July in the model contract proposed by the UCI for riders to sign with a UCI ProTour team.” “According to experts, the interpretation of the law can be confusing and we want to be sure before making any decisions,” he added. Bureau Report