There has never been a cycling team owner as curious -and even capricious- as Oleg Tinkov, the businessman who has now renounced Russian citizenship in protest of the war in Ukraine and against the policies of Vladimir Putin. Perhaps he was the owner of a squad -perhaps the only one too- that kept journalists on edge for many nights because, in the style of other media personalities, some linked to politics, he took advantage of Twitter to comment, communicate and explain curious situations related to his equipment. until someone noticed that he pressed the keys of his mobile or computer with greater force when the vodka began to take effect.
The one who knew him well – on some occasions he supported him, on others he criticized him, and even insulted him – was Alberto Contador, the Pinto cyclist and the one who never had much luck when it came to living with those responsible for his teams: he was rebound affected by the port operation (2006) to the point that the Eufemiano Fuentes, the ringleader of the doping plot, exculpated him saying that he was not his client. After ending the relationship with Manolo Saiz, the coach who brought him into professional sports, Johan Bruyneel came into his life. Everything was fine until Bruyneel recovered for cycling to Lance Armstrongand the marriage between the Texan runner and the Madrid runner was rather a relationship in the form of divorce from the first day until the American left, long before the chaos of doping that crossed him out of life exploded in his face cyclist.
Until 2016
and so it appeared Bjarne Riis with the support of a Danish bank (Saxo Bank) until the owners realized that betting on cycling was a very expensive business, despite the sporting successes of its Spanish star. then arose Tinkov, who soon fired Riis, let’s say due to disagreements, and began a new surrealist-type coexistence between Contador and the Russian millionaire that lasted from 2012 to 2016.
Oleg Tinkov became so passionate about the sport where he promoted his bank that he decided not to miss a day in the Tour. And not only to live with its cyclists, but to ride the roads as if it were one more. But, of course, he was the owner and the owner must be treated in an exquisite way, so if he decides to do part of the day’s stage by bike, he must be taken care of as if he were another cyclist on the team.
Correctly dressed in the ‘maillot’ and ‘coulotte’ of his squad, every day a mechanic I would go over the bike, the official one, of course, in case the boss was going to have a breakdown. With a car, properly accredited, to avoid any problem with the gendarmes who were guarding the road before the platoon arrived, and incidentally protect it from a mishap with another vehicle, Tinkov he plied the route of the Tour, until he got tired.
Masseur included
And so, if the hotel was far away or he decided to join the race in one of the cars that followed the peloton, he would use a portable shower, even if there were spectators in the gutter, and freshen up before changing into street clothes, which was the same one worn by the cyclists on his team. oh! a masseur he also knew that he had to recover the banker’s muscles every afternoon.
He boasted of a private plane (with which he traveled Contador to Madrid when he fell and left the 2014 Tour), good food and good wines. That’s why, when the drink began to take effect, around dawn, Tinkov I opened the Twitter app. The show starts! And let’s not say if the calendar noted the April 1st, day of jokes or fools around the world except in Spain. It did not matter that he knew that the relationship of Contador con Armstrong it was null The hiring of the Texan, then already tainted by doping, as team manager, as he did in 2015.
From beer to finance
Tinkov sat next to Contador in the press conferences that the man from Madrid gave during the rest days of the Tour, he ordered his assistants to search the commercial areas of the ‘penguins’ area without success so that the cyclists would not suffer from the heat wave on the day of rest of the Alps, although in this case it was shown that money could not do everything.
Born on Christmas Day 1967 in Siberia, the son of a miner, became a millionaire, after try out as a cyclist, thanks to a very successful beer business in Russia. After selling the patent in 2007 he founded a bank credit institution in his country, Tinkoff Credit Systemswhich is what gave its name to the set of Contador, the fact that Tinkov bought for six million euros at the beginning of the last decade and whose operation always depended on his decisions -technicians, riders- to show that at that time he was as much a fan of the bike as of the team’s results.
