Russian says poor results made him leave Saxo-Tinkoff
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Tinkoff team owner Oleg Tinkov at the race.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The new Saxo Bank Tinkoff team kit(Image credit: Saxo Bank Sungard)
Oleg Tinkov had his own champagne to celebrate with.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Oleg Tinkov and Tyler Hamilton at the head of the group(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Oleg Tinkov has said that he will “stop sponsoring Riis Cycling” after the end of this season, indicating that it was his decision. Earlier today Bjarne Riis said that he was ending his association with Tinkoff Bank, saying that he had decided to stop the negotiations.
On his Facebook page, Tinkov said that he was stopping with the Danish team for two reasons, the first of which was “poor sporting merits in 2013 season”. On his Twitter account, the Russian had criticised Alberto Contador for his performance in the recent Tour de France.
The second reason was the creation of a new project. “From January 2014, we will start to build our own cycling team 'Tinkoff Credit Systems. This will be BIG project with 5 years commitment,” Tinkov wrote.
He previously ran the Tinkoff Restaurants Continental-ranked team in 2006, before transforming it to the Tinkoff Credit Systems team (Professional Continental) for the 2007-2008 seasons.
Tinkov, 45, praised his now-former partner. “I respect Bjarne Riis as a sport manager, I still disagree with him as a team manager. I wish the best to Bjarne and Riis cycling to find a new sponsor, even in today's challenging economics. And hope we could cooperate in some point of time."
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