Oleg Tinkov says Tinkoff-Saxo may fall victim to Russian crisis

Oleg Tinkov has warned that pressure on Russian economy caused by the imposition of sanctions on the country, where his financial services business is based, could ultimately result in him having to withdraw backing for his Tinkoff-Saxo cycling team.

The effect of the sanctions plus the collapse of the Rouble as well as a fall in the price of oil have hit the country’s economy hard, and the entrepreneur told Bloomberg his company is not immune to the effects of the crisis.

“If the sanctions will deteriorate the Russian economy and share prices decline even more – there is no room to decline, but let’s assume there is – and then the Tinkoff Bank starts to suffer, then I will stop my sponsorship,” he explained.

“I don’t know as owner of the team if I will be able to find a substitution sponsor in Europe,” he went on. “Most likely I will not, and I will have to shut down to the team, so you see there is a direct impact.”

Tinkov’s company had already sponsored Saxo-Tinkoff for 18 months when he bought the team’s management company from Bjarne Riis, who remains its general manager, in late 2013.

It goes into 2015 with Vuelta champion Alberto Contador spearheading its challenge in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, while its Classics campaign will be led by new arrival Peter Sagan, the most prized signature in professional cycling this close season.

But Tinkov maintains that should Russia’s economic problems continue, the jobs of 80 riders and support staff at the team could be at risk.

“If you push us, eventually 80 people in Europe will lost their job because of the sanction. These days, I don’t know what they are doing … we are all connected now.”

While he expressed admiration for President Obama, he blames the White House for leading the international community in imposing sanctions on Russia, and encouraging other countries, including those in Europe, to follow suit in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

“If I were the Americans, I would be more concerned about China than Russia, but they are trying to push Russia,” he went on. “It is their choice.

“I am so much in love with Obama in his administration, in terms of internal policy…this is genius. GDP is growing, they have recovered from the credit cycle, and so on and so forth. Brilliant. But what they do externally is a total disaster.

“Vice-versa for the Russian administration. It is so good for external policy, it is great what Putin is doing, but he is disastrous for the internal politics.”

Tinkov was also asked about Alberto Contador, who appeared to return to his best form in 2014, and how successful he believed that he could become.”

On the subject of his Contador’s prospects for next year, Tinkov insisted: “I think he is able to win all of the three Grand Tours next year.”

Tinhkov wouldn’t be drawn directly when asked if the Spaniard, who received a mostly backdated two-year ban in February 2012 after testing positive for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France could achieve that without doping.

Instead he pointed to the record of Tinkoff-Saxo, and the team he previously owned, Tinkov Credit Systems, which raced at UCI Professional Continental level.

“I will tell you something,” said Tinkov. “There are a lot of rumours about doping, but I owned a team for three years before and I own the team for two years here … because I was the sponsor one year, now I own the team.

“So, five years. I never, ever had any doping cases in my team. None. Zero. Nil.”

Some of the team’s riders have been involved in cases related to anti-doping violations, however.

Contador, who joined Saxo-Tinkoff in 2011, was stripped of the Giro d’Italia title he won in that year with the Danish team following his suspension, as well as the Tour de France victory he had achieved with Astana the previous year.

The UCI has appealed the case of another former Astana rider now with Tinkoff-Saxo, Roman Kreuziger, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Earlier this year Czech anti-doping authorities cleared him of charges related to irregularities in his biological passport during his time with the Kazakh outfit.

Meanwhile, Michael Rogers was provisionally suspended after testing positive for clenbuterol following his victory at last year’s Japan Cup, but was found to be the victim of accidental contamination.

The Australian rider returned to win two stages of the Giro d’Italia and one in the Tour de France this year.