Once a year each rider has the opportunity to race for the title of national champion, the chance to proudly show off their national stripes for the next 12 months – it’s the week of the National Championships.
 
A brief pause away from WorldTour racing comes after another busy period with back to back Criterium du Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse races. After conceding the top spot in the individual UCI WorldTour rankings to teammate Alberto Contador, Peter Sagan regained the lead after his stage wins in Switzerland. Overall, the team also extended its lead at the top of the team rankings.

Tinkoff’s championships action gets underway this Wednesday at the various national time trials. Maciej Bodnar will be looking to take back the title he won in both 2012 and 2013. Bodnar is still on the road to recovery after his nasty training ride crash in early April, which saw him out of competition until the start of June. However, having showed strong form at the recent Tour de Suisse, assisting Peter Sagan’s two stage wins and posting an impressive time trial of his own on the penultimate day’s racing, Bodnar will be looking for a strong result again this week. 

Manuele Boaro will be facing a tough line-up in Romanengo in his quest to add the tricolore to his TT suit, following strong performances in the individual time trials at both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de Suisse. While Michael Valgren will also race national time trial ahead of the road race.
 
After each nation’s time trial champions have been crowned, the attention turns towards the road racing, with Erik Baška in action first as he lines up at the Slovakian U23 national road race. The first of the senior races comes from Spain, on Thursday, where Alberto Contador will also continue his final preparations for the Tour de France with participation at the Spanish road race, alongside teammate Jesús Hernández.

With the rest of the men’s titles disputed on Sunday, the majority of the team will be contesting their respective nationals, with Sagan looking to defend his Slovakian title won in 2015.
 
The team’s largest presence is in Russia, with four starting on Sunday. While there will be three riders a piece in Italy, Poland and Slovakia. The full list of who’s racing where is as follows:
 

Tinkoff riders at national championships
Time Trial

Denmark – 22/06
Michael Valgren
 
Italy – 22/06
Manuele Boaro

Poland – 22/06
Maciej Bodnar
  
Road Race
 
Austria – 26/06
Michael Gogl
 
Croatia – 26/06
Robert Kiserlovski
 
Czech Republic – 26/06
Roman Kreuziger
 
Denmark – 26/06
Jesper Hansen
Michael Valgren
 
Great Britain – 26/06
Adam Blythe
 
Italy – 26/06
Manuele Boaro
Oscar Gatto
Matteo Tosatto
 
Poland – 26/06
Maciej Bodnar
Rafal Majka
Pawel Poljanski

Russia – 26/06
Pavel Brutt
Evgeny Petrov
Ivan Rovny
Nikolay Trusov 

Slovakia – 26/06
Erik Baška – U23
Michael Kolar
Juraj Sagan
Peter Sagan
 
Spain – 23/06
Alberto Contador
Jesús Hernández