While Italian Gazzetta dello sport made a huge story around revealed internal, motivational letter issued by Astana manager Alexandre Vinokourov to his riders, including Tour de France captain Vincenzo Nibali, going far enough to suggest that the 29-year old Italian most likely will leave the Kazakh squad before his current contract runs to an end, both parties played down all rumors.

“We want big results,” the e-mail reportedly read. “We don’t want excuses, ifs and buts. We are not interested in reasons, but results. Up until now, we have not seen them. Like this, things aren’t going well for us.”

Vinokourov diminished an importance of revelations from Italian media last week, explaining that the letter was issued before the Liege=Bastogne-Liege and denying information about internal split within a team, while Nibali insisted that it wasn’t written to him directly as it regarded the whole team with an intention to motivate them and remind about staying focused on season’s biggest objectives.

“The story’s not true,” Nibali told Cycling Weekly. “Vino wrote to the team, not me personally, and told us to try to work together and focus on reaching our goals because Astana is one of the big and important teams.”

Nibali called the article “crazy.” “It’s not true. Vino said to me, ‘Stay calm. Our goal is the Tour de France. We have to do the best there.’”

The 29-year old Italian also played down suggestions about leaving Astana just after his upcoming Tour de France campaign, insisting that he would stay in the Kazakh squad at least until his current contract runs to an end in 2016 season.

“Leaving for 2015 or 2016? No. No. For sure, no,” he said. “There are teams that are interested, for sure, but there’s nothing. I signed again last year, renewing my contract for two years.”