T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft (UCI Team Code: TCS) is a continental cycling team based in Russia, racing in the UCI Continental Circuit and UCI WorldTour events (when invited as a wildcard team). The team is financed by Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov.

Oleg started his team manager career (in 2006) with the continental team "Tinkoff Restaurants", when promoted to the professional continental level, the teamname changed to "Tinkoff Credit Systems" (2007 and 2008).

After 4 years of hard work (2009), Oleg launched the ProTour Team Katusha Project, Tinkov managed the new team for six months but then quit after a conflict with Andrei Tchmil (who was appointed by Itera). So now, after two years of absent, he's back, with a new team(name) and co-sponsor: "T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft".

T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft will ride on Cervélo bikes with Campagnolo accessories, ZIPP wheels, and Catlike helmets. The equipment will be tested first during our pre-season trainingcamps, which will take place in Italy: Terracina.

This year T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft will consist of 24 cyclists, 22 are Russian, also the scouting will mainly focus on Russia. Next to the Russian riders we have 1 other nationality in our team: Vasil Kiryienka and Nikita Zharoven (both Belarusian).

While our riders are still on pre-season trainingcamp in Italy (Terracina), the Australian riders already started their cycling season with the Australian Championship. Rory Sutherland of Unitedhealthcare will wear the Australian colors this season.

More news from Down Under: T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft received a Wild Card for the Santos Tour Down Under! This will please our co-sponsor Rosneft, who expect us to wear the sprinter's jersey atleast for one day. Next to T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft and the eighteen WorldTour teams, FDJ, Geox and Unitedhealthcare (probably because of Rory Sutherland) received Wild Cards.

Eight of our fifteen sponsor goals are WorldTour Events, so Wild Cards will be important to make this season successful. Apart from the WorldTour Events, the race calander for 2011 is complete/confirmed.

16km, right from the start a group of 13 riders break away. Aleksandr Khatuntsev (T.CS Bank) wins the KoM Sprint ahead of Niki Terpstra (QuickStep) and Francisco Javier Iriarte Garro (Movistar). The sprinter teams (HTC, RadioShack and Rabobank) aren't happy with the big group and soon the 13 riders are caught by the peloton.

47km, another attack is launched, this time only 4 riders get away and the peloton let them ride. The four riders are Boris Shpilevsky (T.CS Bank), Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Liquigas), Rubén Pérez Moreno (Euskaltel) and Tomas Alberio (Geox). Shpilevsky managed to win the first Intermediate Sprint, Moreno 2nd and Dall'Antonia 3rd.

53km, Dall'Antonia takes the second Intermediate Sprint, ahead of Shpilevsky and Alberio. Great work by Boris Shpilevsky, because he will wear the sprinter's jersey tomorrow, which means our first sponsor goal of the season is achieved!

100km, Mathew Hayman (Sky) and the Australian National Champion Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) attack and will try to close the gap with the breakaway.

119km, with 20km left to go, Hayman and Sutherland join the breakaway, but minutes later they are all caught by the peloton.

139km, a chaotic masssprint started 3km from the finishline. Without team trains to guide their leaders, it's an-every-man-for-himself-sprint. But even without his important teammates, Mark Cavendish showed yet again that few can touch him when it comes to sprinting! Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) and Óscar Freire Gómez (Rabobank) completed the podium. Nikolay Vasilievich Trusov finished 5th, so it looks like his early season form might bring us some great results in the weeks to come.

Bad news for Ovechkin; during stage 1 of Le Tour de Langkawi he fractured his skull, this will keep him from racing at least 2 months. Trusov, who dislocated his elbow during the Santos Tour Down Under, probably will be racing again soon (begin February).

0km, today the Queen Stage is on the menu, appetizer a 100km flat pancake and main course Genting Highlands, a 25km tasty climb. In advance, we had three leaders in mind for Le Tour de Langkawi: Vasil Kiryienka, Evgueni Petrov and Vladimir Alexandrovich Efimkin, but after four stages it's clear that Kiryienka is best placed in the general ranking, so the renewed team tactic is clear -> All for Kiryienka, Kiryienka for T.CS Bank.

54km, 14 riders decided to go for the pancake appetizer:

None of them were interested in the intermediate sprints, they just wanted to get at the foot of climb with enough time advantage to go for a stage win. Only Efimkin had other plans, he was there to maybe help Kiryienka later in the stage and also his presents in the breakaway group made sure that we didn't have to chase the group ourselves.

105km, with less than 19km to go the peloton reeled the breakaway group back in (the long chase was led by Astana and Sky). To keep the pressure on the peloton Efimkin decided to attack again!

114km, T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft tactic seemed to be working; with still 10km climbing ahead, the race leader Rubens Bertogliati wasn't able to keep up with Astana's high pace and was dropped by the peloton (25 riders). Efimkin was still leading at this point but only had a few seconds left.

120km, eventually Efimkin was joined by the best climbers of the peloton. The 15 riders that were left slowed down a little bit to oversee the situation, but soon after that (with 4 km left to go) Kanstantsin Sivtsov of HTC jumped away.

124km, everybody tried top get to the wheel of Sivtsov, but he was just too strong today, a great solo of the young Belarusian rider of HTC followed. Our Belarusian rider Kiryienka was riding in the first group behind Sivtsov, along with Knees (Sky), Navarro (Saxo), Kišerlovski and Kashechkin (Astana). And while Sivtsov already had finished his main course and was enjoying his well deserved yellow jersey dessert, Kiryienka finish 4th, just behing Knees.

The first month of 2011 was a good one for T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft. Boris Shpilevsky managed to achieve our first sponsor goal at the Santos Tour Down Under and Aleksandr Kolobnev won the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria. HTC-Highroad had a great start of the season aswell: Mark Cavendish won 5 stages in January and Kanstantsin Sivtsov won Le Tour de Langkawi.

This month we'll ride our first time trial of the season (Tour of Qatar), therefore we decided to test the new equipment. Here are some screens of the time trial training.

The Tour of Qatar is a sponsor goal for us (stage win), but today it will be hard to achieve it, since there're a lot of good sprinter/prologue/time trialist on this years startlist. But of course not all of them are already in good shape, this early in the season. So maybe Ignatiev can suprise us with a podium place.

A lot of people showed up for the Doha Cultural Village Prologue, in particular for all this years new time trial equipment; most teams, nowadays more owned by bike manufacturers, showcasing their gear for the world to see for the first time.

Right after the start, a short downhill.

Followed by a roundabout.

Than the sharp corner were Graham Watson yearly makes his awesome cycling photos.

At the end of the day Frantisek Rabon suprised everybody by beating favourites like Farrar, Hagen and Hushovd. Mikhail Ignatiev had a good prologue and finished 8th, 13 seconds behind Rabon. Just like Rabon not a lot of people had predicted László Bodrogi on the podium, so good start of the Tour of Qatar by him aswell. Let's hope Denis Galimzyanov (or one of our fighters) can win a stage in the days ahead, but this clearly will be one of the hardest sponsor goals of the season to achieve.

Good news for Trusov; his dislocated elbow is fully healed!

0km, today is our last chance to achieve our Tour of Qatar sponsor goal: win a stage. It will be really hard with riders like Cavendish and Farrar already in good shape this early in the season. We don't think a breakaway has any chance today, you never know for sure but our pre-race team tactic is simple: we are riding for Denis Galimzyanov!

10km, right from the start a group of 14 riders break away.

40km, Luca Barla (Androni) wins the first intermediate sprint ahead of Ivan Rovny (T.CS) and Simone Ponzi (Liquigas).

60km, the WorldTour teams (HTC, Garmin and RadioShack) aren't happy with the big breakaway group and with 47km left to the finish line, the 14 riders are caught by the peloton.

84km, the big sprinters (Hushovd, Cavendish, Farrar, etc.) don't care about the second intermediate sprint, but for teams like Saur and T.CS Bank every dollar counts! Jimmy Casper (Saur) wins the battle against Mikhail Borisovich Ignatiev (T.CS) and Andreas Klier (Garmin) takes some points aswell just by leading the peloton.

106km, mainly thanks to HTC and Garmin nobody was able to get away from the pack to avoid a mass sprint, Kolobnev has done an amazing job by setting off Galimzyanov in the wheels of the Garmin-train, so here we go -> last kilometre!

Unfortunately we didn't achieve our sponsor goal for Qatar. Denis Galimzyanov didn't get a stage win, but had a good week in Qatar and did finished 3rd during the 5th stage of the Tour of Qatar, so both Rosneft and Tinkoff were pleased nonetheless.

46km, there was plenty of movement in the peloton during the first hour(s) of the race. And under the aegis of Robbie McEwen(RadioShack) the morning breakaway rapidly realised a gap between themselves and the peloton. McEwen won the first intermediate sprint, in front of Oscar Gatto (Farnese) and Boris Shpilevsky (T.CS Bank).

71km, the peloton was taking it easy, they seemed to be keeping something in reserve for the final kilometres. The 14 escapees (who already were at the feeding zone) now had more than 5 minutes on the peloton.

98km, just like the first one Robbie McEwen also won the second intermediate sprint, this time he outsprinted Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare) and again Boris Shpilevsky (T.CS Bank). Behind them the peloton had woken up and the gap was melting away, with Team RadioShack and Pro Team Astana in charge. And soon, even before the foot of the Jebel Al Akhdhar (Green Mountain) was reached, the breakaway group was reeled back in by the peloton.

150km, RadioShack Sky and Astana continued the fast pace and with only 5 kms from the finish line, the peloton already lost two-third of his riders.

153km, Tiago Jose Pinto Machado of Team RadioShack launched the first attack, Cadel Evans immediately placed a counter attack, just a few riders were able to follow him: Wiggins, Le Mével, Iglinskiy, Kiryienka and (the suprise of the season so far) Peter Velits.

155km, Machado, the Portuguese rider of Team RadioShack, was really strong today and reached the top of the mountain first, 28 seconds in front of Cadel Evans. A group of 7 riders, including Kiryienka, was fighting for the last podium place. Le Mével was a little bit strong than Kiryienka, they finished 44 seconds behind today's winner: Tiago Machado.

0km, 11:45 am, Sint-Pietersplein, Gent, 196 riders are about to start with the opening event of the Belgian cycling calendar, the 200km long Omloop Het Nieuwsblad!

76km, none of the early breakaways succeed so far, but on the first hill of the day, Ten Bosse (450m - Avg. 6,9% - Max. 8,7%), the Belgian National Champion Stijn Devolder of Vacansoleil- DCM Pro Cycling Team finally managed to get away from the pack.

110km, Stijn Devolder, who just had passed de Haaghoek cobble section (2km) for the second time, was joined bij Daniel Oss of Liquigas-Cannondale. A few minutes later Boom, Paolini, O'Grady, Turgot, Krivtsov and Amorison joined the front group.

172km, the escapees never got a big gap, because the peloton was affraid to give riders like Boom and Devolder more than 2 minutes. The peloton at this point already had dropped a lot of riders and just before the Paddestraat (cobble section 2,3km), Pozzato of Katusha was dropped aswell (he had a flat tire).

174km, QuickStep and Sky immediately react to the news of Pozzato by accelerating fast.

177km, at the Lippenhovestraat (cobble section 1,3km) the "first" peloton almost got the breakaway group, but Boom, Devolder and O'Grady were still fighting for it!

180km, finally the breakaway group was reeled back in by QuickStep and Sky and at the same time many riders got back into the first group, including Pozzato and Hoste.

184km, when all favourites got back in the first group, Boonen and Cancellara accelerated away from the pack and on the Lange Munte (cobble section 2,5km) Matti Breschel, Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni and Philippe Gilbert tried to do the same.

199km, during the last 10km, the 14 strongest riders got together and a group sprint would decide who would win this year's Omloop het NieuwsBlad. We (T.CS Bank) had 5 riders in the second group so a group sprint for the 15th place for us.

200km, Philippe Gilbert won the group sprint, just ahead of 2010 winner Flecha and Boonen.

Unfortunately we didn't achieve our only sponsor goal for February (Stage win Tour of Qatar) but Denis Galimzyanov had a good week in Qatar and finished 3rd during the 5th stage of the Tour of Qatar, so both Rosneft and Tinkoff were pleased nonetheless. The team did really well this month in all races we participated in and we even got a victory at the GP dell'Insubria-Lugano thanks to Aleksandr Kolobnev!
Traditionally, next month (March) is the time of the year when T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft needs to shine. Rosneft and Tinkoff together have 3 sponsor goals lined up for us; Top 3 Tirreno - Adriatico, Top 5 Milano-Sanremo and Top 10 Critérium International. We also applied for wildcards -> Liège - Bastogne - Liège and Giro d'Italia, the two most important races of the season for our sponsors.

0km, 160 riders are about to start the Montepaschi Strade Bianche. The race starts in Gaiole and finishes in Siena, the route consists of 177 kilometres, including 70 kilometres of gravel roads, called "sterrati" in Italy.

20km, Jens Mouris of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team tried to get away on the first gravel hill, but was reeled back in during the descent.

32km, the second breakaway attempt, led by Alexandr Pliuschin of Katusha Team, got clear of the pack. Pliuschin was joined by 6 other escapees.

47km, about an hour into the race the breakaway group had a gap of 2'15. Maxim Belkov of T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft and Robin Chaigneau of Skil - Shimano were doing the most work uphill.

90km, about half race distance, when entering the woods, the peloton started to pick up the pace. Liquigas-Cannondale came front accelerating the pace, splitting the peloton into several groups. A few favourites were dropped like Simon Spilak of Lampre - ISD.

101km, Aljaž Hocevar of Adria Mobil couldn't keep up with the breakaway group, and soon was caught by the peloton.

113km, with still 64 kilometres to go, the escapees could only count on a 1'18 advantage. It also started to rain, which didn't help the moral of the breakaway group.

125km, finally the inevitable happened, the group (totally exhausted) was caught by the peloton.

142km, the weather started to get better and better, the previous hours had been tough, so it was not surprising that the peloton (nearly 40 riders strong) were content to crank the pace down a notch.

161km, on the last gravel section of the day, Alexandr Viktorovich Kolobnev (proudly wearing his UCI Continental jersey) decided to attack. Failli (Farnese), Efimkin (Type 1) and Voeckler (Europcar) had to react quickly because Liquigas was hesitating for a second.

172km, after the gravel section a group of 15 riders was formed. It was mainly Eros Capecchi of Liquigas who kept the group together for his captain Peter Sagan.

177km, so the race boiled down to a group sprint of just 15 riders. At the end Liquigas-Cannondale's Peter Sagan showed he is the rider to beat in the 2011, when it comes to uphill-sprinting. Kolobnev finished 6th mostly because of bad positioning.

0km, the 46th running of the race of the two seas began with a flat team time trial starting and ending in Marina di Carrara in Tuscany. Team Rabobank was the first out of the starthouse, finishing with seven of their eight riders in a time of 21' 20". Sky had a slow start, but picked up speed as their ride wore on, finishing fourteen seconds faster than Rabobank. Astana and Saxobank, finished 17 and 20 seconds off Sky's time. We (T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft) started last, being one of the four Professional Continental teams that were awarded wildcards.

3km, Vasil Kiryienka started strong, he's our leader during this stage race, so it's up to him to achieve our sponsorgoal; top-3, general classification.

6km, all other teams had already passed the intermediate time, Rabobank were the fastest starters in 8' 45". Mainly thanks to Ovechkin and Markov, who took over after Kiryienka's start, we were only 3 seconds behind Rabobank! Lampre and Liquigas 4 and 5 seconds off Rabobank's intermediate time. Sky, being the fastest at the end, were 6 seconds behind the Dutch farmers.

10km, with only 6 kilometres left to go Ignatiev and Petrov came in front to maintain the fast pace.

13km, Ovechkin and Markov, who both did a great job in the beginning of stage, were both dropped 3 kilometres from the finishline.

16km, eager to finish strong, Kiryienka agian took control, finishing first in 21' 22". T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft on the podium! A great start for our team, the squads of Giovanni Visconti and defending champion Stefano Garzelli both lost considerable time, finishing 51 seconds off the pace. Bradley Wiggins took the first blue jersey as race leader since he had been the first Sky rider to cross the finish line.