Oleg Tinkov has done nothing to hide his intention to sign several big names for the Tinkoff-Saxo team and has long been rumoured to be very close to finalizing an agreement with Peter Sagan. Now he reveals that he is also in talks with Bauke Mollema, Alejandro Valverde and Andrew Talansky but says that Tom Boonen belongs to the past.

When he bought the team from Bjarne Riis, Oleg Tinkov made it clear that the 2014 season was a transition year before he wanted to build the best team in the world for the 2015 season. The wealthy Russian has repeated stated his intention to sign several top riders and a lot of names have been linked to the Russian team.

Most prominently, it is rumoured that he has already reached an agreement with Peter Sagan whose Cannondale contract expires at the end of the season. In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, he now reveals that the Slovakian is definitely not the only rider on his short list.

"We have signed riders for next season, but we can only start to announce names after August 1," he said. "We talk to everyone: Sagan, Valverde, Mollema, Talansky..."

Asked if he is interested in any Belgian riders, Tinkov is less impressed by the state of the sport in the cycling-mad country.

"Sep Vanmarcke is an interesting rider," he said. "Is he Belgian? He would be an option. But uoy don't have many riders at that. Eddy Merckx is no longer there. I would definitely have signed him.

"Boonen was a great rider, but he's getting old. He is someone from the past. In 2007, when I was with Tinkoff Credit Systems (a professional continental team, ed.), it was a dream to buy Boonen just like it is now a dream to buy Sagan. But back then, I didn't have enough money."