Vincenzo Nibali may be unable to defend his Tour de France title as the UCI have asked the license commission to review Astana's WorldTour license. However, the Italian is convinced that the international federation won't take that kind of drastic action.

Vincenzo Nibali may already be thinking about the defence of his Tour de France title but first he needs to make sure that he will be allowed to start. The doping positives of Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy and Astana stagiaire Ilya Davidenok have prompted the UCI to request the licence commission to review Astana's WorldTour licence.

However, the Italian does not believe that his team will be relegated from the first division of cycling.

"I am sure it is not going to happen. Astana pays its past and I cannot do anything about it. Vinokourov was not team manager when the image of Astana was destroyed. With riders like me, Fuglsang and young Aru, we have changed the imaged and regained credibility. Everything has changed. We have the bilogical passport. We are member of the MPCC (Movement for a Credible Cycling), we have internal controls. What more can we do? In Kazakhstan, the sponsors are angry at the Iglinskiys, mainly because they are Kazakhs. The UCI will understand this and I am sure that they won't remove our license because two Astana riders have failed. For everyone else, it would be unfair," he explained in an interview with L'Equipe .

"Maxim denied me the win in Liege-Bastogne-Liege (in 2012). In the Tour, he did his job and he helped ne on La Planche des Belles. I will not deny that but off the bike, we were never friends," he adds.

The French newspaper reports that Astana have offered Nibali 15 million euros for a four-year contract that would tie him to the Kazakh team until 2020.

"I have a contract until the end of 2016. The sponsor considers me a symbol of the team. In November, we will go to Italy to discuss the future, it's time to talk about it," he says.

Nibali pays little attention to those who say that he only won the Tour because Contador and Froome were no longer there after both had crashed out of the race.

"I would have preferred to beat them, including Nairo Quintana, in a direct battle but I have beaten all of them in Tirreno-Adriatico two years ago. The crashes are part of the game. And you can also ask how much time Froome would have lost on the cobbles if he hadn't crashed. Who knows? Maybe much more than Contador," he tells L'Equipe.

Nibali points to Contador as his great rival because "he has more experience and more class. He is able to win a Tour without a team, unlike Froome who never would have won without the Sky team." 

Contador has made it clear that he will both do the Giro and the Tour but Nibali is still undecided.

"Looking at the route for the Tour, it would be a risk because the climbs in the 2015 Tour will be harder and more selective. It is a very difficult course that will involve the whole team. I have to agree on my schedule with Fabio Aro. It should be no problem," he says.

Nibali outlined his ideal schedule in the French sports daily.

"Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Critérium du Dauphiné, and maybe also Tour of California, but that's not a certainty. I don't like the time difference and it would really not be compatible with the preparation for the Tour."