Oleg Tinkov is living his last weeks in the cycling world. The Russian millionaire has admitted that he has mixed emotions about leaving this sport at the end of the year. He has constantly pointed out that the economic model within cycling hinders squads such as his and that the UCI has not done enough to stabilize teams.

"In the team car I thought that I was tired of it. I’ve played with my toy but of course I regret that I’m leaving, but I’ll watch onTV. It’s a mixture of emotions but it’s rational. I spent enough money for my toy, I played with it, and then I’m putting it in the corner. When you have kids you’ll know that, he told Cyclingnews.

He is convinced that Chris Froome will be beatable at the next Tour de France. "The Tour is still three weeks from now so we’ll see. By the way I don’t think that Froome is as strong as last year. I see some signs of fatigue and he’s not that strong. He was stronger last year. He has strong teammates – that’s true – but if not for Landa and Poels he would have been in trouble." 

Tinkov criticized also the impressive budget of Team Sky. "They’re budget is ten million a year more, so they can afford to buy Landa, they can afford to buy anyone. For us it’s hard. We spend 23 million and Brailsford spends 33 million. Ten million in this business is a huge difference. We’re still in there fighting. I think Alberto is stronger than last year. That’s just my personal opinion but you have to judge it at the Tour, not the Dauphiné. If they go head-to head-then Alberto is equal to Chris, in my opinion, but they have a huge squad and there’s such investment around Froome."