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This year Team Tinkoff will lean heavily on the Stage racers, mostly due to the fact that Trofimov left our team. Kritskiy will be our leader during races like the Vuelta a Espana and the Criterium du Dauphine Libere. When Kritskiy is not riding, guys like Kolesnikov, Kunshin, Novikov, Ignatenko, Foliforov and Shalunov will try to collect as much points as possible (these 6 riders all will ride the 3 Grand Tours). Our talented youngster Mamykin will ride the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France (sprinter Samolenkov will be the 8th rider during the Vuelta a Espana, allrounder Manakov the 8th rider during the Giro d'Italia and young stage racer Rybalkin the 8th rider during the Tour de France).

The Puncheurs squad is lead by Chernetskiy, with Zakarin (Ilnur) being his loyal helper. Trakhov is a good talent, but still need to learn a lot.

Tinkoff continues to focus on Timetrialists (although it never really pays back pointwise). Two Italians (Malori/Dal Col) and two Russians (Yatsevich/Vorobev) will be the main wagons of our train, the younger brother of Ilnur (Aydar Zakarin) is a talented timetrialist, but for now not Pro Tour material yet.

Just like Trofimov also Gusev didn't renew his contract, therefore our Cobblers squad really was the main focus during the transfer season. Two Frenchmen were contracted (Florian Senechal and Michel Sibilla) and they will lead our team during the cobble races. Together with Sulimov and Zubov we hope to at least podium in some races, Manakov is a talented rouleur who hopefully will get better in the art of cobble riding.

And last our Sprinters: Boev and Korzh both left our team during the transfer period, they will ride in the Continental division this year (Telia-Brussels Airlines and Delvaux). Good ol' Porsev stayed for another year and together with upcoming sprinter Samolenkov they will try to be in the front when it comes to mass sprint finishes.

So here we are... the Vuelta 2018, our Sponsor goal is Top-10, but we hope for more (Top-5 or maybe even podium!). We are here with our strongest line-up possible and we really need to score points if we want to compete in the World Tour next season.

Up until now (9 flat stages in a row) the whole team stayed out of trouble and Samolenkov is performing better than expected:

Kritskiy was where he needed to be at stage 8 (uphill finish) and together with all the other GC-favourites got through the first 9 stages without any time loses. He is really looking forward to tomorrow's ITT of 56km and of course after that all the mountain stages!!!

When you have 2 (ITT) victories in the whole 2018 ProTour season (Malori Stage 1 Tour of California and Malori Stage 6 Tour de Suisse) and you still manage to not relegate with a 4 points difference; you just have to give everybody a new contract, right?!

On the bright side Yatsevich won the Russian National Championships ITT, Nych won the World Championships U23 and Russia won the World Championships TTT.

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Team Tinkoff

Team Tinkoff 2018 (Page 15) up-to-date!

We are very pleased to announce our first signing of the transfer window; Alexander Vlasov! Vlasov was riding for Nordstrom - BioWare last season and to be fair he wasn't really on our radar, but he was part of a deal between Isostar - LimeBike and NENT Racing p/b Hootsuite involving Thomas Faiers. After that Isostar manager Croatia14 called us and within an hour Vlasov and his agent agreed on a new deal (transfer fee of € 150,000) and signed with us!

We are very pleased to announce our second signing of the transfer window; Aleksandr Serebriakov! Serebriakov's dream has always been riding for Team Tinkoff and thanks to the disbandment of Novatek-Panarmenian.net (Selwink) he was a rider without a contract. Veteran Serebriakov will be part of our new sprint train, probably the lead-out man for Artem Samolenkov.

We are very pleased to announce our third signing of the transfer window; Cameron Meyer! Meyer was also a rider without a contract, he was riding last year for the disbanding Team Reddit (Vien). Just like Serebriakov, veteran Meyer will be part of our new sprint train.

We are very pleased to announce our fourth signing of the transfer window; Juan Van Heerden! Van Heerden was also a rider without a contract, he was riding last year for the disbanding Rothaus - Aegon (roturn). Together with Kolesnikov (both born in September 1986) he will be one of our oldest riders, therefore Van Heerden will be the captain of our new sprint train. Hopefully Van Heerden (33yrs), Serebriakov (32yrs) and Meyer (31yrs) combined experience will help Samolenkov (26yrs) to the next (sprinting) level.

We are very pleased to announce our fifth signing of the transfer window; Pavel Sivakov! Sivakov was our main target this transfer season, with Kritskiy in his last peak season, it was very important for us to have this future star in our team. Just like Dmitry Strakhov - who will be loaned out to Bianchi - Campagnolo (Alepere_7) - also Pavel Sivakov will be loaned out to one of the most respected teams in the Man-Game: Eddie Stobart (sutty68).

Alexander Porsev is leaving Team Tinkoff, with three sprinters joining our team during the transfer season, there was just not enough money left to keep Porsev on board. He joined our team in 2014, his biggest result; winning the Russian National Championship in 2016. Retirement is an option, but if the right team comes along he might add another year to his cycling career.


Porsev beating Maksimov during the 2016 Russian National Championship

After one year riding for Team Tinkoff - and protecting Florian Senechal in every cobble race - Michel Sibilla is leaving our team sooner than expected. He really wanted to go one division lower, so he could be leader again instead of being a luxury teammate. Also, his wish was to ride for the same team as his good friend Pierre Rolland - who signed a contract with Rakuten Pro Cycling - and we respected his wish and made a deal with Rakuten's manager; valverde321. We wish him all the best for his future career in the Professional Continental division.


Sibilla in the breakaway during Stage 6 of the Tour of Northern Europe 2018

After being a member of our team for six years, Ilnur Zakarin was ready for a new adventure and, therefore is leaving our team. Because we have young talented (Russian) puncheurs like Kulikovskiy, Strakhov and Trakhov (future 77,78 and 79 Hill stat), we were cooperated with his demand and found the right team (ISA – Hexacta) and manager (Scorchio) for Ilnur Zakarin. We wish him all the best for his future career in the Professional Continental division.


Zakarin winning Stage 14 of the Tour de France 2015

After being a member of our team for seven years, Petr Ignatenko is leaving; mostly because we had to create wage space for Pavel Sivakov. Manager maxime86 of Carrefour – ESPN seized this opportunity and we wish Ignatenko all the best for his future career in the Professional Continental division.


Ignatenko securing the KoM jersey during the 2012 Tour of Turkey

After being a member of our team for eight years, Aleksej Kunshin is leaving; mostly because we had to create wage space for Pavel Sivakov. Manager Tamijo of Campari/Asahi development seized this opportunity and we wish Kunshin all the best for his future career in the Professional Continental division.

Aleksej Kunshin and Timofey Kritskiy have been riding together for eight years now; They both joined Tinkoff in 2011, together they were loaned out for one year in 2012 to Wiggle - San Pellegrino/rjc_43 and came back to our team even stronger in 2013. Kunshin was always the loyal helper of Kritskiy, but sometimes he could go for his own glory; he won the Criterium USA in 2011 (and won the overall Criterium Series), he won the 17th stage of the Vuelta a Espana in 2014 and he won 12th Stage of the Tour de France in 2015!


Kunshin winning Stage 12 of the Tour de France 2015