AFTER five months of keeping cycling fans in the dark, five-time Tour champion Miguel Indurain has finally made his decision concerning his future: he will ride for one more year before retiring.

But he will definitely abandon Banesto, the team he has ridden with since he turned professional in 1984: "It seems like he has something against us," commented an embittered Jose Miguel Echavarri, Miguel's manager and mentor for the last 12 years.

"Something" is a euphemism for internal problems which started after Indurain failed to take the Hour Record in late 1994 and was then forced to ride the Vuelta against his will this September. The normally impassive Navarran made unusually public outbursts against the team management, which had always permitted him to decide his race programme, and quit the race, ill, at the foot of the most important climb of the day on the most important stage of the Tour of Spain.

From then on, he virtually refused to talk with his team manager and opened up serious negotiations with rival squads. ONCE seems to be the most likely option for Indurain's last season, although the rumoured £1.2 million that Indurain is asking for could give the team's accountants one or two sleepless nights.

It is thought that the team is looking for another sponsor, which will help matters. For his final assault on the Tour de France, Indurain has brought forward his preparation and is already training over mountain passes in the company of his brother, Prudencio, and a pulsometer to regulate his programme.

"Losing the Tour this year means that I am keener than ever to win it again," he said recently.

If he does win it in 1997, he will have established an all-time record number of victories - six - in La Grand Boucle, ahead of such legends as Hinault, Merckx and Anquetil.