Alberto Contador takes 3. The tour de France champion is leaving Astana, but for now keeping his options open for 2011.

(Photo: Yuzuru Sunada)

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador will leave Astana at the end of this season after he rejected the team’s offer to extend his contract, the Spaniard’s spokesman announced on Wednesday. Contador “wants to have time to calmly explore all the possibilities available to him during the coming season and no option has so far been excluded,” Jacinto Vidarte said in a statement.

During his three seasons with Astana, the 27-year-old Contador won a Giro d’Italia and Spanish Vuelta title as well as two of his three Tour de France titles.

Contador, the winner in 2007 and 2009, pulled on his third Tour de France yellow jersey on Sunday after the 20^th and final stage of cycling’s premier event. The win makes Contador is the ninth cyclist to win the Tour de France at least three times.

The word on the street has it that no matter where he goes, the Spaniard will remain tied to Specialized which makes a possible Saxo Bank connection possible since the Riis team is soon to lose the Schleck brothers.

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Alessandro Petacchi on the Champs-Elysees triumphant in the green jersey.

(Photo: Yuzuru Sunada)

Petacchi Stays Mum on Doping Investigation

Tour de France sprint king Alessandro Petacchi will not be commenting on an investigation into alleged doping practices, his lawyer said Wednesday.

During the Tour earlier this month it was revealed that Pettacchi had been summoned by the public prosecutor in Padova to answer questions regarding the use of banned substances.

The Italian was allowed to continue competing in the Tour, though, and subsequently went on to claim the sprinters’ green jersey. However his lawyer Virginio Angelini said the Lampre rider has agreed not to say anything.

“We had a meeting yesterday, he wanted to talk but I decided on a strategy of not responding,” said Angelini, who dismissed the accusations against his client as “too general.”

The Italian ANSA news agency, quoting informed sources, previously alleged that two banned substances were found at the 36-year-old’s home - PFC (Perfluorocarbon), an alternative to the banned blood booster EPO, and human serum albumin.

The affair is said to centre on two former teammates as well as two other amateur riders.

Petacchi, one of the most successful sprinters of his generation, was suspended for a year after the 2007 Tour of Italy for testing positive for excessive levels of the asthma drug salbutamol.

Tom Danielson in the Tour de Suisse. Danielson will be among the starters in the 2010 Tour de Polonge on Agugst 1.

(Photo: Roberto Bettini)

Tom Danielson among starters at Tour de Pologne

Everything’s ready for the Tour de Pologne which kicks off Sunday with a 175.1 km first stage from Sochaczew to Warsaw. There are 23 teams lining up for the start of the race with seven stages on August 1-7, 2010. The 1256.5 km race finishes in Krakow.

There are 18 Pro Tour teams: AG2R la Mondiale, Astana, Caisse d’Epargne, Euskaltel Euskadi, Footon-Servetto, Francaise des Jeux, Garmin-Transitions, Lampre-Farnese Vini, Liquigas Doimo, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Quick Step, Rabobank, Sky Professional Cycling Team, Team HTC-Columbia, Team Katusha, Team Milram, Team Radioshack, Team Saxo Bank. These teams will be joined by the following 5 squads invited by the organisers: Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team, Cervelo Test Team, BMC Racing Team, Skil-Shimano and Polska BGZ.

Registered racers include 2008 World Champion Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing) who won the last edition of the Tour de Pologne. Team Astana will feature Spain’s Oscar Pereiro, who won the Tour de France in 2006; for the sprints they’ll have Australian Allan Davis, who’s already familiar with the roads in Poland. There are a lot of fast riders in the group with Germany’s Andre Greipel (Htc-Columbia), Italians Danilo Napolitano (Katusha), Daniele Bennati and Jacopo Guarnieri (Liquigas-Doimo), Angelo Furlan and Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Belgians Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) and Geert Steegmans (Radioshak), Brazilian Murilo Fischer (Garmin Transitions), Argentina’s Josè Haedo and Australian Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank), Graeme Brown (Rabobank), from New Zealand Gregory Handerson (Team Sky) and German Robert Forster.

Other stars who’ll be coming out include: Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), six days in the yellow jersey in the 2009 Tour de France; Belgian Champion and winner of two Ronde Van Vlaanderen races Stijn Devolder and the American climber Tom Danielson (Garmin Transitions).

Among the interesting young riders there is Italian Fabio Felline (Footon Servetto), b. 1990, fresh off his experience at the Grande Boucle, Slovaks Martin and Peter Velits (Htc-Columbia) and Peter Segan (Liquigas Doimo).