In a short press release Tinkoff Bank – Tinkoff Insurance stated that the rumours about Dmitri Kozontchuk, being very close to a transfer deal to a Continental team, are true.

Also Andrei Sakalou seems to be available for transfer, last week in an interview the Belarusian National Champion said he would love to ride a few more years at Continental level. Of course Tinkoff could also loan him out again and see how far his talent goes, but fully understand (young) national champions with high potential are always in demand by other teams.

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Burghardt and Boonen beaten by Gusev on the Mur de Huy,
Tour of Northern Europe 2010

After 4 years without a real leader for the cobble races (best result up until now is probably Gent - Wevelgem 2014; 7th place, Kozontchuk), we finally managed to sign Vladimir Gusev! After 8 years at 7 different teams, Vladimir really wanted to ride his last year(s) at Tinkoff, but he wasn't cheap; Pendleton's received a transfer fee of € 589.000.

Gustav Larsson beaten by Gusev during a 43km long hilly ITT,
Vuelta a Colombia 2009

Gusev a (ManGame) cycling legend, really wants to end his career on a high note, but we at Tinkoff already would be very pleased if he can Top-10 in every cobble race he enters. Maybe even more important, we want Gusev to be a mentor for our talented flandriens Alexander Sulimov and Matvey Zubov.

Frank Schleck beaten by Gusev on the Monte Duc,
Paris - Nice 2008

Vladimir Gusev (as you can see in his palmares below) has always been fighting really hard for good results. Because of his age he will be the underdog/outsider in many races this year, which could turn out to be in his favour. So maybe, instead of waiting, a mid-stage attack could be the best tactic this season.

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With the Criterium du Dauphine Libere halfway, the cycling world is starting to look forward to the biggest race off the season; Tour de France! But let us first review what happened up until the Tour.

Last year Tinkoff finished 7th in the ProTour, with Yuri Trofimov winning the Individual Rankings. This year our aim is to be in the Top-10 again. The season started really good with Trofimov winning in Badaling and Vorobev getting 25th in Qatar. We also ride HC-races this year - mainly to gain experience (points) for our younger riders - Korzh was able to get 71st at the Classic Down Under, not bad.

Gusev rode his first (cobble) race for Tinkoff in February, he finished 12th at the Omloop. Ovechkin went to Germany for our second HC-race of the season he became 21st at the Bayern Rundfahrt, while Rybakov became 26th at the Grand-Duché, both decent results. Kritskiy started his season really good, he fisnished 6th at the Tirreno and Trofimov was even better; 2nd in Paris-Nice. Trofimov also was our leader at San Remo -> 16th was the maximum result, Sam Bewley won the Monument, spoiler alert, in fact Sam would win the first three Monuments this season!

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In March we faced our first and hardest goal of the season; Win Vuelta al Pais Vasco. Trofimov won the last stage of the race, but became 3rd overall at Vasco. Gusev was outstanding during March, he finsied 3rd at East Midlands, 9th at the Ronde and 6th at Roubaix! Kritskiy also had one race during this month; 11th at the ITT of Herbiers, while Sulimov became 79th in Lisbon.

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April was all about the Giro, Kolesnikov had an outstanding Giro finishing 12th in Italia, we also were Best Team and Pomoshnikov won Stage 12 (Aiago). During the Giro, Trofimov was able to win the fourth stage in California, he also got 4th in the General Rankings.

May was all about the Ardennes Classics, which turned out to be even more one-sided than the Monuments had been so far; Ponzi, Spilak, Ponzi, Spilak, Ponzi and Spilak. Our leader was of course Trofimov during this races, he finished 6th at the Amstel, 3rd in Fleche and 4th in Liege, collecting many ProTour points. We also had another HC-race this month; Porsev became 109th after 5 days in and around Dunkerque, while Gusev had another good race; 11th at Appia Antica. And last but not least we also had the Vuelta in May, Kritskiy's main target of the season, the sponsor goal was Top-10 and he did that, but had a terrible (ITT) start, but still managed to fight back; Kritskiy finished 9th at the Vuelta. With Kritskiy kind of failing we none the less had a lot to celebrate in Spain, just like the Giro we again were Best Team, Pomoshnikov again won a Stage (Stage 8 to Mont Caro) and he also won the King of the Mountain Jersey!

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So back to now, June started with Korzh finishing 38th at the HC-race Eneco Tour, but more import Kolesnikov had a great week in Suisse (were he became 11th). Therefore Kritskiy (9th Vuelta) or Kolesnikov (12th Giro) will be our leader during the Tour the France. At this moment Kritskiy is riding the Dauphine Libere were he will try to get top-5, he now sits at the 10th place, with still an ITT, Mountain and Hilly stage left to ride.

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Only one ProTour Race (Lombardia) left on the calendar, plus World and National Championships, and it looks like we are going to end up around 7th in the Team Standings (goal was Top-10). Last year we were 7th as well, so just for the sake of progress 6th would be great; Go Trofimov, you can do it!

Giro di Lombardia


The Favourites

The season is almost done, but we still have some championships to be raced. All of our riders will be riding the Russian National Championships, we hope to get our hands on at least one Russian National Championship Jersey, but history shows that being the dominant team during NC races isn't a guarantee for good results.

Of course we also dream about the Rainbow Jersey (last year our jersey was stolen by a reporter) but this year's World Championship route (mountain) isn't perfect for our riders, but we believe that we have a chance if the race is turned in to an endurance battle. The Russian line-up is of course mostly Tinkoff, but 4 very strong riders will join from other teams; Karpets for the TTT / Ignatiev for both the ITT and TTT / Medvedev and Efimkin for the Road Race.

Russia has 2 captains for the road race; Kritskiy and Trofimov as leaders / Pomoshnikov and Kolesnikov as luxury teammate / Medvedev and Efimkin for a mid race attack / Ignatenko and Kunshin for the early breakaway.

ROAD RACE

TEAM TIME TRIAL

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The last months of the season were (as expected) mediocre, we started of great though with two stage wins at the Tour de France by Kunshin (Stage 12) and Zakarin (Stage 14), Kolesnikov ended up 16th in the overall rankings and we were second best team (behind Pendleton's).

Two races in August; Trofimov wasn't able to do much during the Deutschland Tour and finished 19th overall (Zakarin did manage to get 3rd at Stage 4). Also GP Moscow was quite a bummer; nobody in the first big group, Krasnov was our best rider; he finished 82nd (+ 17'57).

We bounced back a little during September; Kritskiy managed to get 11th in a strong field at the Vuelta a Colombia. The Tour of Northern Europe went even better, Gusev was strong during all 8 stages and in the end finished 8th, 4 minutes behind the winner Fabian Cancellara. Sulimov had our best result in an HC-race this year; 14th at Rheden GP and Kritskiy climbed to the 12th place at GP Liechtenstein (6 minutes slower than winner Andy Schleck).

October was good/better again; the Team Time Trail in Denmark (Copenhagen - Malmo TTT) went quite alright for Tinkoff; 10th (56 seconds behind the winner the Oz Cycling Project). Giro dell'Emilia - our last HC-race of the year - was all about collection XP Points; 105th place for Rovny. Krasnov couldn't do much during Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha, not in the first big group -> 92nd place for him. Trofimov was great again during the Tour of Tasmania, he won the last stage and ended up 2nd in the overall rankings. Our last PT-race of the season (Giro di Lombardia) was also our last sponsorgoal (Top-3) and of course Trofimov delivered; 3rd, he was beaten by OF COURSE Simone Ponzi!

The World Championships in Paarl, South Africa were quite unlucky for Tinkoff/Russia: Russia finished 12th in the Team Time Trial, our Stagiare Arslanov finised 43rd in the U23 Individual Time Trial, Kritskiy rode a really good Individual Time Trial, he finished 4th (40 seconds behind Pluchkin) and Kritskiy also had a decent result at the Road Race; 15th place (23 second behind winner Andy Schleck)

We ended the season on a high, Kritskiy was 2nd at the Russian ITT NC and Trofimov won the Russian NC!

In total we won 1 Classic (Badaling International), 3 Stages (Vuelta al Pais Vasco S6, Tour of California S4 and Tour of Tasmania S3), 4 Grand Tour Stages (Giro d'Italia S12, Vuelta a Espana S8, Tour de France S12 and S14), 1 King of the Mountain Jersey (Vuelta a Espana), 2 Best Team (Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana) and 1 National Championship (Russia).

Results

Since we're in off season mode and the transfer market is open again, you can contact OlegTinkov (Directeur Sportif, Tinkoff Sport Academy) for all your questions/enquiries concerning transfer and loan deals.