By ANDREW DAMPF,
AP Sports Writer
May 6, 7:22 pm EDT

VENICE, Italy (AP)—Lance Armstrong lashed out Wednesday at Kazakh officials who let his Astana team fall into a financial crisis on the eve of his first Giro d’Italia.

“I don’t know them, I don’t have a personal relationship with them, but I get frustrated,” said the seven-time Tour de France champion who’s riding for free this season. “These Kazakhs, they don’t return phone calls, and there’s not a lot of clarity about what is going to happen.

The American cyclist even suggested his Livestrong cancer foundation might be able step in and bail out the team, but that seemed to be a long shot.

“While as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Lance Armstrong Foundation would not be able to fund the day-to-day operational expenses of a for-profit endeavor,” Katherine McLane, communications director for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, said in a statement Wednesday evening. “We would certainly look for ways to develop a dynamic partnership to support the cancer mission and cancer survivors.”

Upon his arrival in Venice for the Giro, which begins Saturday, Armstrong had told a small group of reporters that he hoped to find some funding to get the team through the end of the year.

“It could be a combination of people that have a shared interest in Livestrong and want to see Livestrong promoted around the world and believe in what we’re doing,” he said.

Astana receives most of its financial support from Kazakh state holding company Samruk-Kazyna, but the Central Asian nation’s economy has been badly hit by the ongoing global financial crisis. The team has not paid its employees lately.

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