Following a below-par 2013 season, mainly due to Alberto Contador’s disappointing performances during the last Tour de France edition, things started to look much brighter for the Danish WorldTour squad since the Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov took command last December. With the 31-year old Spaniard being without any doubt back to his best and other Tinkoff-Saxo leaders appearing to be just as motivated, the new owner claims that winning the French grand tour this year is absolutely possible and promises to build the most dominant cycling squad in the nearest future.

Even though a complexity of factors significantly enhancing riders’ performance are nothing new in the modern cycling and famous Team Sky’s “scientific” approach to that discipline proved extremely effective last two seasons, apparently only Tinkov’s arrival brought more systematic methods to such grounds as training programmes, nutrition and foundation, with an immediate effect.

"The goal is to create a good group, to lay the foundations to build the best team in the world," Tinkov told Spanish newspaper AS in an interview at the Giro d'Italia, where Tinkov is riding his bike each day. "(I want) to realise a good training programme, nutrition and foundation. I don’t just want to have the best riders in the team, I also want to make the perfect climate with the technical staff, the assistants, the soigneurs and all the people that we have around."

While the Russian oligarch is expected to demand nothing else than victories from Tinkoff-Saxo top riders, apparently he is aware that building a strong cycling squad is a long-term process and while he aims to turn the Danish team into the most dominant unit in the discipline, he also acknowledges that there is still a room for improvement.

"We are good, but I can’t say that we are the best. But we hope that we can achieve that in 2015. I have promised this."

Riding the Giro d’Italia parcours on his bike every day, Tinkov expressed his satisfaction with performances of Danish squad’s co-captains Nicolas Roche and Rafał Majka at the Italian grand tour.

"The aspiration is to win the maglia rosa. Nicolas Roche and Rafal Majka are two exceptional riders," he said.

The situation has changed rather significantly following the crash-marred sixth stage of the three-week event, but while the Irishman lost all the chances for a good overall result in the Giro, the 24-year old Pole survived a dramatic day to jump into a fourth position in the general classification behind Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), looking strong enough to improve on last year’s result.

The Tinkoff-Saxo owner hugely criticized Contador following his disappointing appearance in last year’s Tour de France, but without any doubt the 31-year old Spaniard returned to his very best and with dominant showing in all races he participated in this spring, Tinkov believes that he can be the one to beat in 101st edition of the French grand tour.

"Right now I see him as the number one and the toughest of riders. His is first in the UCI rankings. He is in the top rung of the peloton. We hope to continue this great momentum to win the Tour de France," said Tinkov. "I think that he can. I am convinced of it."

"Now he races in my team and I am the owner of the team," said Tinkov. "I am happy with his performance and there is a deal. There is a contract and I respect it and he respects it. It is a professional subject. Besides, at that time I wasn’t the main sponsor."

While Contador’s form and self-confidence seem to be increasing with every next race he participates in, once formidable Team Sky suffered one blow after another and failed to post respectable results on most occasions this season. Tinkov expects the British squad to be ready for the challenge in July and predicts a fierce battle between Froome and Contador.

"They are not as strong as they have been in the previous two years. They are human, they seem normal to me in many ways they have slowed down after two seasons at that level, but certainly at the Tour de France we will have a huge battle between Tinkoff-Saxo and Team Sky," Tinkov predicted.