When Armstrong announced his comeback, he told Vanity Fair that he wouldn’t take a salary from Astana. “Everybody in cycling has a team and takes a team salary,” he said in a large feature published in September 2008. “I am essentially racing for free. No salary. No bonus. Nothing on the line.… This one’s on the house. And you know what? At the end of the day, I don’t need money.… Not only will I be fine, my kids will be fine, my grandkids will be fine.” This was repeated to other publications in other interviews.
The UCI requirement that he accept a salary was presumably made at some point between then and the start of the season.
In May of that year, five months into the season, Armstrong gave an interview to a small number of media sources including Cycling Weekly. At the time there was great uncertainty about the future of the Astana team as salaries had been unpaid. There was talk that Armstrong and general manager Johan Bruyneel could take over the team, aided by new sponsors.
Armstrong was asked if he would consider covering the wages, but he said that he was racing for free and therefore already putting something into the team. “I'm already investing myself. Not taking a salary is some sort of investment,” he said.
Bruyneel echoed this in his personal blog. “Even if Lance himself does not have to deal with the payment troubles since he rides without a salary, he suffers seeing his team-mates not being paid,” he said at the time.