McQuaid hints at WorldTour-licence

According to UCI president Pat McQuaid, Euskaltel will get a WorldTour-licence for 2012. So says Miguel Madariaga. Talking to Bilbao-based newspaper El Correo, the Fundación Euskadi supremo revealed he's confident his team will get one of the three available licences.

"I talked with McQuaid during the recent Tour of Beijing", Madariaga said. "He told me our WorldTour-licence is secure. I'm very optimistic".

The decision will be taken by the UCI's licence commission in a couple of weeks. But even if Euskaltel manage to stay in the 'Champions League' of cycling, he's worried about the future.

"I can't say the future is looking very bright for us", he admitted. "It's not very likely we'll be in the WorldTour in 2013. We're looking for sponsors pretty much everywhere, but so far we haven't been successful. We would be open to foreign sponsors. In America for example, we have contacts through Orbea. But we'll see what happens".

Madariaga, who's been working tirelessly to find sponsors for the better part of two decades now, went on to say that the public funding will reduced by 20 percent next year, in effect reducing the team's budget from seven to six million euro. For once though, the prospect of a substantially smaller budget didn't dent his mood.

"I'm sure we'll find the money needed to balance the books", he concluded.