Tinkoff-Saxo riders gather in Croatia - Gallery

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World champion Peter Sagan and Giro d'Italia winner Alberto Contador have gathered in Poreč, Croatia with their Tinkoff-Saxo teammates for a series of medical check-ups and meetings, as the WorldTour team begins preparing for the 2016 season.

All the team’s 27 riders for 2016 plus the many sports directors, doctors, technical staff and team management will stay at the coastal resort in in Poreč, on the Adriatic sea facing Venice, for four days. 2016 race programmes for the team and each athlete will be decided, with sponsors also giving presentations about products and how best to use them during the 2016 season.

Sagan and several other riders have only just ended their 2015 seasons and are still enjoying time off the bike, but others have already begun to prepare for next season. With Saxo Bank no longer a title sponsor, the Russian-registered team will be known as Tinkoff Team in 2016.

New riders at Tinkoff Team for 2016 include Adam Blythe, Oscar Gatto, Michael Gogl and Yuri Trofimov. Contador and Sagan remain the team leaders, with Contador set to target the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in what is likely his last season at WorldTour level. Ivan Basso is at the get together as he begins his new career within the team management.

On the first full day at the get together, the riders gathered on the seafront for a group photo, before a select few enjoyed temperatures of 20C during a short ride.

Cyclingnews Editor-in-Chief Daniel Benson is in Poreč and will exclusive interviews and news throughout the week.

The final roster of Tinkoff Team for 2016 consists of 27 riders. In alphabetical order they are: Erik Baška, Daniele Bennati, Adam Blythe, Manuele Boaro, Maciej Bodnar, Pavel Brutt, Alberto Contador, Oscar Gatto, Michael Gogl, Jesper Hansen, Jesús Hernández, Robert Kiserlovski, Michael Kolar, Roman Kreuziger, Rafal Majka, Jay McCarthy, Sergio Paulinho, Evgeny Petrov, Pawel Poljanski, Michael Rogers, Ivan Rovny, Juraj Sagan, Peter Sagan, Matteo Tosatto, Yuri Trofimov, Nikolay Trusov and Michael Valgren.

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