The winner of this year's Tour de France, Alberto Contador, has declined a contract extension with team Astana.
The Spaniard plans to leave the Kazakh squad at the end of this season, although he still has one more year in his contract.
Contador received an offer from the Kazakh government to remain with the team for an additional four years, earning 8 million dollars a year.
Contador says the relations in the team were strained during the recent tour and that he had no time for team-mate Lance Armstrong.
Armstrong has already announced he will leave and form his new team, RadioShack, together with manager Johan Bruyneel and several of Astana's other star riders.
Contador won the Tour for the second time this year, two years after his first. He missed the 2008 edition, but he raced and won the two other Grand Tours: the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.
