Banking on Russians | Cyclingnews

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Oleg Tinkov at the Giro(Image credit: Sirotti)

An interview with Oleg Tinkov, June 22, 2007

One team of young, inexperienced riders enlivened the first week of the Giro d'Italia with relentless attacks. They were clad in yellow and black, and were present in every significant breakaway until stage ten. The Tinkoff Credit Systems team was so aggressive that many fans wondered if any of the riders would make it to the finish of the tour in Milan. With the majority of the team riding their first Grand Tour, even team owner Oleg Tinkov questioned the logic of expending so much energy so early.

"I was not behind the riders attacking every day," declared the 39 year-old Oleg Tinkov from his office in Moscow, Russia. He had just ended a phone call with someone from Forbes magazine and was more than happy to talk about cycling - putting his business matters, like starting a new banking company, aside. "I never said for those riders to go up the road like that. Along with [directeur sportif] Dimitri Konyshev, I told those guys to stop. 'Mikhail, please don't do it!

Even the team's youngest rider, 19 year-old Ivan Rovny, was not immune to the desire to race hard, and he put in a well-timed attack on stage nine along with Ignatiev. The pair were trying to bridge up to a break of four, but also had another motivation. "On the stage to Lido Di Camaiore, with 15 kilometres to go [the race went] right by my villa," explained Tinkov, "I know they wanted to [attack] for me but it was not smart."

The team consisted of five Russians, three Italians and a Spaniard. "I think [Daniele] Contrini went well," he remarked on the 32 year-old Italian. Contrini made the breakaway with Marco Pinotti and Luis Felipe Laverde on Stage 6, but he could not hold on when the attacks started on the Forca di Cerro. "But [Salvatore] Commesso should have done better in my opinion. He deserves to have better results but I am happy that Contrini did well."

But when Tinkov says the 'head of the series' he's not necessarily referring to the ProTour. Unlike some, it's the races themselves that the passionate Tinkov cares for - so long as his squad gets a birth at the events, the teams registration level isn't as important to him. "I don't care about the ProTour," he declared. "I care about the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España - those races are what I care about. I care about the Grand Tours.

The Tinkoff Credit Systems squad was given recognition this season with wildcard invitations to the Ronde Van Vlaanderen and the Giro. Tinkov credits this with slow, steady growth based on the team's younger riders. "I want to build a good solid team and then it [being at the top of cycling] will come one way or another," he explained. "I want have one of the best teams in the world. Now I don't know where we are in the rankings, but to be the number one team in the world takes time.

Tinkov's building philosophy paid off in the early season. As his higher profile signings such as Tyler Hamilton struggled to find enough form to finish with the main group, his young Russians quickly racked up the team's first wins. In February, Brutt claimed the squad's first stage victory as a Professional Continental team at the Tour de Langkawi before going on to take victory in Switzerland's GP Chiasso a month later. Meanwhile, Ignatiev snagged a victory in February's Trofeo Laigueglia and a stage in the Tour Méditerranéen. Ignatiev went on to win the prologue at the Netherlands Ster Elektrotoer.

The duo's ability to compete at the sport's top level will form the foundation of developing a ProTour-winning squad, according to Tinkov. "I think those guys will be ready by then [2009]," noted Tinkov. "I think next year they will still be learning while we are building the team. Maybe in 2009 they will be ready for doing something more serious. I think by then the guys like Brutt, Ignatiev, Ivan Rovny and even [Evgeni] Petrov will be prepared."

"It will be an all-Russian team there," he continued. "I think that the Russian school for the team time trial is the best in the world. Of course, it comes from the Soviet times, but it is still one of the best schools, and all of them know how to do it from the technical perspective. Therefore, they will be the most balanced team, plus I think the big teams are not motivated to send their best teams with the Tour de France shortly after. We will have a huge chance to win a ProTour race."

Tinkov's hiring of these two riders at the beginning of this season was controversial, but has since sidelined the duo, although Jaksche continues to race. Due to the legal and medical complexities of the cases and doping, respectively, there was no concrete information which led to Tinkov's benching of the riders. "How can I have something concrete? I can't have that, but I am just tired of this doping situation," he said, before going on to address why the suspended Jaksche is still racing. "It is a management decision. I don't want to see Hamilton, Jaksche, [Danilo] Hondo, or any guys with doping issues mentioned next to my name. However, the management sometimes does its own stuff. I was surprised to see Jaksche racing, [but] according to the UCI contract we can't fire him."

At the time of hiring the riders, Tinkov explained that he felt they deserved a second chance. Six months later, the Russian's view on the matter has changed somewhat significantly. "I have to admit that I made a mistake," he confessed. "I believed in this guy and I tried to help him. However, more and more, with the development of the situation of [Ivan] Basso, and everybody else who starts to confess, I just realised that there was a case and then I decide that I don't want to deal with it anymore. I don't want to see Hondo, Jaksche and Tyler anymore in my team. That is it."

Tinkov covered many of those kilometres through the Italian countryside on his bike, although probably not at the same speed as the professional peloton. "This year I did 1000 kilometres," he proudly reported. "Most of the time I would ride before the race, from the start to the feed zone or from the feed zone to the finish. Next year I hope to do 2000 kilometres. Last year I did around 20,000 kilometres in total but this year I have been much busier and I have only done only 1500 kilometres."

The squad has learned a lot and the team will be more balanced for next year's Giro, according to Tinkov. By 2009 he hopes to build the team's budget with either his own money or with funds from a secondary sponsor. "Either with or without I am going to go much bigger in 2009," he said. "The budget is secured at four million Euro. So, for next year it will be more or less the same budget, like this year. However, for 2009 we will be much more serious if we want to be one of the biggest teams in the world - with or without a secondary sponsor.