Team Contentpolis. (Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The former Contentpolis-AMPO team may be ready to return to the peloton under the name Murcia-AMPO team in 2010. AMPO is expected to announce its continued sponsorship before the registration deadline on Tuesday, according to team manager Jose Antonio Ortuño. It is also likely that Michael Rasmussen will join the team if it gets its licence.
The team's deadline for for registering with the International Cycling Union is December 1. It received the extension from the UCI's earlier November 15 deadline after encountering difficulties in securing sponsorship for the coming year.
Ortuño said that it looks like the team would reduce its personnel by three for 2010, "because that requires logical adjustments to reduce the schedule and times of crisis." The reductions would not affect the team's Basque or Murcian cyclists, he told todociclismo.com.
"We are very much the hallmarks of our sponsors, and in the specific case of the Basque participation, we are always open to considerations of AMPO." said Ortuño.
If the team receives its licence, it is likely to sign Danish rider Michael Rasmussen, “who still has a lot of firepower in his legs, as could be seen by his brilliant return to competition on Mexican soil the end of this season.”
Rasmussen, 35, has recently returned from a two-year suspension for violations of anti-doping whereabouts regulations. Both Rasmussen and the team are keen to secure participation in the Vuelta a España next year.
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