Cycling: Tinkoff-Saxo becomes Tinkoff-Team in 2016 before the Russian billionaire retires from cycling at the end of the season and puts the team up for sale. Like last season, two names will probably dominate events this year: Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan.
Tinkoff Team overview
Two pros particularly stood out from Team Tinkoff's 2015 season: Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan. The Spanish-Slovak duo defined the season for billionaire Oleg Tinkoff's team. With WorldTour team rank 7, they were able to establish themselves in the upper middle field, even if the eccentric team owner would have liked to see a top 5 placement.
The whole team had a hard time last season. Individual daily victories by just Contador at the Vuelta a Andalucia and Sagan near Tirreno-Adriatico were the highlights of the Russian team's early season. Although Peter Sagan still has the Overall victory at the Tour of California celebrated, his boss raged in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport and said at the time "If I could find a legal way, I would reduce his contract."
But with the Giro, Tinkoff-Saxo's season took a positive turn. Contador and his team dominated the tour and was able to hold on to the maglia rosa until the last stage. After this really impressive performance, the team, and last but not least Contador himself, had their eyes on the Giro-Tour Double and consequently went into the Grand Boucle with confidence. But even if the Spaniard showed a strong performance again, he no longer radiated the dominance, no longer the same freshness that was able to set him apart from the competition at the Giro. In the end it was a respectable fifth place, but Contador had to realize that against the superiority of Sky and Movistar there was no arrival.
Man of the tour was – not only from the point of view of Tinkoff-Saxo – but undoubtedly Peter Sagan. Although the Slovak was denied a day's win (with five second places), he was able to put his stamp on the tour and in the end confidently the green jersey win. Almost every day you could see Sagan in the escape group, almost every day he was on his own because no other driver wanted to work with him and almost every day he missed victory by a hair's breadth. The team still had reason to celebrate on the Tour: Rafal Majka won the difficult stage from Pau to Cauterets.
The Vuelta finally opened up for Sagan with a Grand Tour day win when he finished the third stage in Malaga raise his arms in celebration - however, the Tour of Spain came to a sad end for him when he was involved in a collision with an escort motorcycle had to give up injured. However, the big highlight was yet to come: the 25-year-old triumphed at the Road World Championships in Richmond in a truly inimitable manner and was celebrated by fans worldwide for the title.
The coming season will be extremely exciting for the Tinkoff team. Although there will be little change within the team - there are only a few departures and additions - but only a few weeks ago team owner Oleg Tinkow announced that wanting to sell the racing team at the end of the season. The contracts of many drivers are expiring and it is therefore also a question of their personal future.
Tinkoff Team transfers
Departures: Edward Beltran (EPN-UNE-Área Metropolitana), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Orica GreenEdge), Bruno Pires (Team Roth), Michael Morkov (Team Katusha), Oliver Zaugg (IAM Cycling)
Additions: Adam Blythe (Orica GreenEdge), Erik Baska (AWT-GreenWay), Oscar Gatto (Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec), Yuri Trofimov (Team Katusha)
Tinkoff Team - Team bikes and gear
team bike: The Tinkoff Team (then called Saxo-Bank) has been on the road with bikes from US manufacturer Specialized for seven years now – and nothing will change in 2016. This makes Tinkoff the third team in the WorldTour on Specialized bikes, alongside Astana and Etixx – Quick-Step. The pros have a choice of three or four bikes: the all-round street model S-Works Tarmac, the futuristic aero bolide S-Works Venge ViAS, the endurance bike Roubaix and the Specializes Shiv for time trials.
Grey-blue and fluo yellow are our colors for 2016! @iamspecialized @tinkoff_bank pic.twitter.com/yXFNJ6JBzd
— Tinkoff (@tinkoff_team) 5 January 2016
components: As with Etixx - Quick-Step, it will be exciting to see how the component situation at the Tinkoff Team changes over the course of the season. Like the Belgian competition, Sagan and Co. are using a Shimano / FSA mix, which - depending on availability - could become a pure FSA equipment over the course of the year. The Italian manufacturer has its own switching group that is about to be ready for the market, which, like the SRAM eTap group, is operated wirelessly. Should this group become available in time, we could see it on the Tinkoff team bikes. Until then, however, they rely on the usual quality from Shimano. The wheels come from Specialized or Roval.
disc brakes: While many teams have problems with the availability of components or frames for disc brakes, the Tinkoff team can take it easy. The S-Works Tarmac Disc is a top wheel for disc brakes and the Specialized Roubaix is also available as a disc version. The brakes themselves shouldn't be a problem either: Both Shimano and FSA have suitable components in their range.