Exclusive: Tinkov ready for legal battle with the UCI
Tinkoff-Saxo team owner critical of the Biological Passport after Kreuziger case
Oleg Tinkov, the outspoken owner of the Tinkoff-Saxo team, has told Cyclingnews that he is ready to start a legal battle with the UCI because of the way the international governing body of cycling has handled the Roman Kreuziger Biological Passport case.
"There should be clear rules. At the moment he's provisionally suspended. What does that mean? I've paid him a million Euro this year but he couldn't perform at his best because he's been under pressure, getting letters from the UCI all the time and his mind was not at ease. Yet they're telling me that I have to pay him but I also have to suspend him before it's proved that he doped.
"If they want to use the Biological Passport, they have to have clear criteria for it, with red zones where people are banned. Now it's a tool that doesn't work properly. They have it, they talk about it a lot, but they don’t know how to use it.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.