Bruyneel says payments have been made
- By VeloNews.com
- Published Jun. 9, 2009
The Astana team says it has resolved its financial problems.
Unpaid bank guarantees had meant the Kazakh team had been threatened with expulsion from this year’s Tour de France, which begins on July 4.
“The financial problems as of today are resolved,” said Alain Gallopin, one
of the team’s sporting directors.
Astana’s riders were able to wear their traditional jerseys at the beginning of the third stage of the Criterium Dauphine Libere on
Monday.
During the race’s first two days and for much of the Tour of Italy, which finished last week, the riders wore jerseys on which the name of the main sponsor, Astana, was all but blocked out.
“The late payment has been made,” team manager Johan Bruyneel told AFP by
telephone. “The decision to change the jersey during the Giro was linked to
this problem.”
Two of the outstanding conditions have therefore been met by the Kazakh cycling federation, the team’s licence-holder, after Astana last week provided the UCI with financial guarantees that enabled them to keep their racing license.
The UCI had threatened to rescind the team’s ProTour license after the team’s riders were reportedly not paid for two months.
“The third condition concerns the guarantee for the rest of the season, which is the responsibility of the UCI,” Bruyneel added.
“To my knowledge, it’s not yet been done.”
Bruyneel said he was “not aware” of the arrival of a new sponsor, after Kazakh Minister of Tourism and Sport Temirjan Dosmukhambetov said an American organisation had been lined up to invest in the team.
“It’s an American company, which is working in the Kazakhstan market,” said
Dosmukhambetov, who did not reveal the sponsor’s identity.