Jun 18, 2009, 13:37 GMT
Hamburg - Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador are set to compete at the Tour de France next month after the financial problems of their Astana team were solved.
Astana said in a statement on Thursday that meetings with government officials of Kazakhstan, sponsors and the nation's cycling federation resulted in secured funding for the rest of the season.
'We are glad that we can continue with our strong team ... Thanks to the guarantees made by the Kazakh government, we can continue with the same group that already proved in the past to be a real team,' said team boss Johan Bruyneel.
The future of the team was in jeopardy in recent weeks due to the financial problems as the world economic crisis hit sponsors of the Kazakh team. The ruling body UCI had threatened to withdrew the team licence.
Armstrong is a seven-time Tour winner, Contador won the famous French race in 2007. Astana were not invited to the 2008 Tour due to doping cases. This year's edition starts on July 4.
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