The Kazakh cycling team Astana, home of Spanish Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, have secured a place on next year's ProTour, official sources announced on Wednesday. Astana are one of 17 teams to have passed the International Cycling Union's (UCI) entry exam but Italian team Lampre, whose leader is Damiano Cunego, failed to meet the necessary requirements. The assessment procedure, which is undertaken by an independent body, judges whether or not the sport's elite teams satisfy a number of administrative and financial criteria. In recent months ...

The future of Tour de France champion Alberto Contador's Astana team is again in doubt after cycling's ruling body made new demands for financial guarantees. Kazakh Cycling Federation deputy president Nikolai Proskurin said Tuesday that the International Cycling Union is demanding a bank guarantee of Astana's annual budget before it will renew its ProTour license. Proskurin says the demand is unreasonable and that he is unsure whether Astana can meet Wednesday's ...

Johan Bruyneel, manager of the new RadioShack team headlined by Lance Armstrong, has finalized a 2010 team roster that includes 16 riders from 16 countries. "It is a well balanced team," Bruyneel said of the team that will gather for the first time in Tucson, Arizona, in the second week of December. "We have experienced riders - with some of them I worked already many years in my former teams - but we also have young talents who can develop in the perfect environment. "I am happy that our sponsors want to ...

Italian cyclist Gabriele Bosisio pleaded his innocence at a hearing with the Italian Olympic Committee's Anti-doping prosecutor on Monday. The 29-year-old LPR rider was caught by an out-of-competition test in September which detected traces of the banned blood-booster EPO. "I've never taken EPO and I repeat that I am innocent," he said. LPR was the team of Italian Danilo Di Luca, who finished second in the Tour of Italy in May only to be suspended later for failing two doping tests during the race. Bosisio was caught thanks ...