SPANISH rider Oscar Pereiro, winner of the controversial 2006 Tour de France, has told why he has decided to extend his career with Astana.Pereiro took his Tour title after original victor Floyd Landis was stripped of the win in a drugs scandal, but his livelihood looked like it was over when the Spaniard quit in a feed zone in the Pyrenees in this year's Tour.

SPANISH rider Oscar Pereiro, winner of the controversial 2006 Tour de France, has told why he has decided to extend his career with Astana.

Pereiro took his Tour title after original victor Floyd Landis was stripped of the win in a drugs scandal, but his livelihood looked like it was over when the Spaniard quit in a feed zone in the Pyrenees in this year's Tour.

Disillusioned after a crash in 2008 which might have ended his pro career he admitted in a Spanish newspaper interview that he had he had lost his desire.

“After that [crash] I was bored, tired and disappointed," Pereiro said. "I said that I wanted to quit and stuff like that, but in the end, thankfully, my passion for the sport returned and now I'm looking ahead.

“I don't think that a rider who has won the Tour de France should retire in a feed zone but should find some other way of doing so.That's why I've decided to take up the chance to ride for another year and quit when the time is right.”

Pereiro and Astana agreed terms two weeks ago but had agreed not to make the news public until Alberto Contador had decided whether or not to ride for the Kazakhstan squad. That news was confirmed this week.