Oleg Tinkov has mentioned the possibility that his Tinkoff-Saxo team will boycott next year's Tour de France if the business model in cycling is not drastically changed. "I'm ready to boycott the 2016 Tour de France to make them understand that things have to change," he writes in his blog on Cyclingnews.com. "Similar things happen in other sports, players have gone on strike in the NBA or the NHL hockey league. I can afford not to go to the Tour de France for a year if all the teams agree not to go too."

"Of course it would hurt the fans in the short term but it benefits the sport as a whole in the long term. Otherwise we will continue to struggle. I really hope that ASO can understand that," said the flamboyant Russian. 

Tinkov feels that cycling can not continue as things are now. 

"I still believe that the Tour de France and other race organisers have to incentivize the teams by paying them because we are totally dependent on sponsorship and that business model is no longer sustainable.

"According to my information, many of the teams in the peloton are struggling financially more and more because they have less and less budget but the stars riders are requesting bigger and bigger salaries."

Tinkov is not worried by the financial situation of his own team.

"Fortunately it's not a problem because my team's budget, in contrast to other teams, is 100% sure for next year. As usual, we're going to meet with Saxo Bank at the Tour de France and decide things with them for 2016. If they carry on as a second sponsor it'll be nice but if they stop it'll be nice too and we can have a nice big Tinkoff logo on the chest."

Later this week Tinkov will travel later to France to join his team. Everything is focused on victory for Alberto Contador and therefore there is no room for any green jersey for Peter Sagan. 

"Perhaps he can win the green jersey while helping Alberto win yellow, that would be the best outcome."

There have been reports that Sagan is dissatisfied with the team and wants to leave prematurely. 

"The truth is that we both have a contract that we have to respect but everything is possible. We'll see what happens after the Tour de France."

You can read the entire blog entry here.