Oscar Pereiro faces an uncertain period and possible retirement after the one-year contract he signed with the Astana team now appears to be off, according to Spanish website AS.com. The 2006 Tour de France winner has not been listed on the team’s roster for its first training camp in Pisa, Italy next week.
Pereiro reportedly signed and returned a contract to the Luxembourg company Olympus Sarl by courier. After the team received confirmation of its ProTour license last week, Olympus Sarl contacted him once more to renegotiate his salary. This proposed drop in his wages, and the training camp snub, has caused him to reconsider his future.
"I'm staying on the road and I just want to compete," said Pereiro to AS yesterday from his home in Vigo, Spain. He has consulted with his lawyers, instructing them to take urgent action with the International Cycling Union (UCI).
One of the major factors behind his contract with Astana was for him to be a prominent mountain domestique for current Tour champion Alberto Contador. "I have not discussed this matter with Contador,” he said. “He signed me to help in the mountains of the Tour, replacing Haimar Zubeldia [who has followed many of his former teammates to Lance Armstrong’s new RadioShack team]. Now I do not know what will happen,"
Before putting pen to paper with Astana, Pereiro reportedly had contractual talks with the Belgian Quick Step team. These were closed after he signed with the Kazakh team and the 32-year-old may now be looking at retirement a year earlier than he had planned.