Alberto Contador remains with Astana, according to Eddy Merckx. “He has signed a contract for two additional seasons, knew the” Greatest of All Times’, reporting on the Gerrit Plieger Cycle Show in the Dutch Meerkerk. Contador will recieve over € 4.000.000 for his deal with the Kazakh formation. Quick.Step, Garmin, Caisse d’Epargne and Sky where not able to sign a deal with Alberto Contador.

Last stumbling block remains the Astana ProTour license, which the International Cycling Union (UCI) decides on Friday. By then all the administrative and financial criteria are met. But according  to Contador’s teammate Alexandre Vinokourov this could not be a problem.

“My main goal for 2010 is the Giro, says “Vino”. In the Tour we put everything on Alberto. Astana will ride with “Specialized” (the name of the company) bikes next season, which is also the sponsor of Quick.Step and Saxo Bank.

Cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke died unexpectedly yesterday following a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lungs). He became 34 years old.

According to the authoritative French sports newspaper L’Equipe they found insulin, Stilnox (a sedative) and Xanax (for anxiety attacks) next to his bed. A healthy person produce just as much insulin as the human body needs, therefore, taking extra insulin is very dangerous. An excess of insulin aids for a drop in blood sugar.

Vandenbroucke was born on November 6, 1974 in Mouscron. He leaves two daughters behind.

His mom Chantal Vanruymbeke recieved the call from his buddy Fabio Polazzi at half past nine on Monday 12 October 2009. VDB took a flight to Dakar on Sunday where he wanted to spend his holiday in a luxury hotel for 10 days. He finally had his life back on track. Meanwhile he also was looking for a new cycling team.

Great talent
Vandenbroucke was one of the greatest talents of Belgian cycling. He was Belgian champion in the novices (1991) and junior (1992). In 1995 he won Paris-Brussels, in 1996 the Tour of Austria and the Scheldeprijs, in the 1997 Tour of Luxembourg, in 1998 Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Nice, in 1999 de Omloop Het Volk, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and two stages in the Tour of Spain. After that his career went downhill.

Watch a video of his famous victory at the La Redoute:

RIP VDB, if you want to say something, please comment…