jyl

Do you bet Tinkov will mess up his team's performance, or get the most out of them, this year?

Latest: he appears to have suspended Riis.

Riis suspended from Tinkoff-Saxo | Cyclingnews.com

hueyhoolihan

well, if someone has taken his place at the Volta Catalyuna, they are already off to a bad start. they all got snookered today.

jyl

The thing is, when I look over the Tinkov roster, the only actual race winning riders I see are Contador and Sagan. Rogers can very occasionally win a stage, maybe Majika too. Everyone else looks like pure domestiques, even Basso nowadays. So that team doesn't look to me like one that is designed to win very much.

Leinster

It looks like Sean Yates was DS at Paris Nice, so presumably Riis was in charge at Tirreno? Majka managed to finish 40 minutes down on GC in PN, their best overall was Kiserlovski in 20th, and Valgren got 6th on one stage. Once Contador lost out to Quintana at Terminillo, a stage win and points jersey for Sagan is about as much as they could've hoped for from TA. It'd be a bummer for Riis to get the shunt because Bertie and Petey haven't been getting it done.

jyl

I think it would be interesting to see Riis take his $1MM for doing nothing this year, and watch Tinkov scramble to salvage his team.

jyl

Riis is out, terms of separation confidential, replacement not yet named. Rider morale must be shaky, as all the Tinkov riders who were willing to make statements seemed to be backing Riis.

Interesting to see how they do this year.