OlegTinkov

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For anyone who feels like he is missing some Championship Jerseys: An Italian guy made a "missing jersey pack" compatible with the pcm09 and pcm08 version of the VIZLDB09.

These are not VIZLshirts and I haven't tested it myself, so I can't vouch for the quality and/or accuracy of this package, but since I haven't heard a single negative comment about it, it should be ok.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PUBYEPTR

2009 Part 1 May

Program

*10.05.2010 ITA HIS Giro d'Italia Stage 1

*11.05.2010 ITA HIS Giro d'Italia Stage 2

*12.05.2010 ITA HIS Giro d'Italia Stage 3

Giro d'Italia Stage 1

The start of 2009 Giro d'Italia (the 92nd edition) in Venice with a TTT of 20.5 km, celebrated 100 years since the first edition of the race. Team Saxo Bank was the first team to ride the perfectly flat course in Venice, and wound up being the stage winners. They all finished together, but the first Saxo Bank rider to cross the line was of course, Fabian Cancellara, he did most of the work during the second part of the course and was awarded the first pink jersey as general classification leader. His young teammate Jakob Fuglsang was awarded the white jersey as youth classification leader.

Rabobank also performed well, they managed to also have all nine riders cross the finish line together and finished as 2nd team, only 4 seconds behind Saxo Bank, mainly thanks to the strong riding Stef Clement. Lampre - N.G.C finished 3rd, 7 seconds behind Saxo Bank, but only with the minimum of 5 riders finishing together. Bruseghin and Cunego were amongst those five riders, so Lampre did a great job putting both stage race riders in the top of the general standings. Tinkoff Credit Systems of course was overruled by most of the Pro Tour teams, only Cofidis and Euskaltel ended up behind us. But we kept our leader Roman Kreuziger within a minute from the "Maglia Rosa" of Cancellara.

Giro d'Italia Stage 2

After yesterday's somewhat disappointing performance by our team during the TTT, we hope that today's flat stage from Jesolo to Trieste suits us better. The race started with an early breakaway including Manolis Kalinichenko, the first intermediate sprint was won by peter Wrolich of Team Milram (8 points), Horrilo became second (6 points), Kalinichenko got third (4 points) and with that collecting for the first time pricemoney for Tinkoff Credit Systems during this Giro d"Italia.

After the intermediate sprint, Team Saxo Bank started to control the peloton and just before the three laps of an 11 km finishing circuit in Trieste started, the pack wheeled in the escape group. Because we had Kalinichenko in the escape group, our work in the peloton was easy, we just had to keep Roman Kreuziger and Yukiya Arashiro in the front and out of trouble by avoiding falls and/or flat tires. Because of his good positioning in the pack, Kreuziger was able to take the points for the climb taken on their second time over the hill at Montebello. Kreuziger knew that he would wear the the mountain jersey tomorrow thanks to this sprint. His spirit was so high that he wasn't scared anymore for accidents to happen in the last km, and decided to assist Arashiro.

Thanks to Kreuziger's help Arashiro came in perfect position 4km before the finishline. Arashiro got behind the CSF Group - Navigare train and stayed out of the wind as long as possible. When he felt that the CSF Group - Navigare's train was losing it from the other sprint train's on the left (Lampre and LPR), Arashiro decided it was time to start his last punch. Only 75 meters left to go and Arashiro was leading by now. But Angelo Furlan and Luca Paolini of Lampre - N.G.C and Acqua & Sapone - Caffè Mokambo started to gain in again on Arashiro. OlegTinkov's was shouting as hard as he could in his ears, and luckily for Arashiro the finishline was just at the right place, because at the end he only had 5 cm left of his lead!

What an amazing victory of Tinkoff Credit Systems, not only did we won the stage, Arashiro also now is the leader of the points classification and Kreuziger of the mountains classification! Alex Nicki Sylvester Rasmussen (4th today) of Team Saxo Bank will take over the pink jersey from his teammate Fabian Cancellara and because he is also the leader in the young rider classification, his teammate Matti Breschel will have the honor tomorrow to wear the maglia bianca.

Giro d'Italia Stage 3

(Simulated) Just like yesterday, today's race (a fairly flat stage from Grado to Valdobbiadene) ended up in a mass sprint. Luca Paolini of Acqua & Sapone - Caffè Mokambo won the peleton sprint and became the first Italian stage winner of the Giro d'Italia 2009!

Surprisingly, non of the leader jersey holders were able to defend their jerseys with succes. Alex Nicki Sylvester Rasmussen of Saxobank lost his maglia rosa to Stef Clement. His team (Rabobank) already became second, during the TTT of last Saturday and by winning 20 bonus seconds during the "Traguardo Volante" in Conegliano he, Stef Clement, will be able to wear the maglia rosa proudly tomorrow, during the first mountain stage of the Giro.

And although Alex Nicki Sylvester Rasmussen lost his pink jersey, he still will be easy to recognize in the mountains, since he will be wearing the maglia bianca. We (Tinkoff Credit Systems) also lost both of our leader's jerseys; Yukiya Arashiro's purple jersey was overtaken by Angelo Furlan of Lampre - N.G.C (who finished second today, behind Luca Paolini) and Roman Kreuziger lost his mountain jersey to Luis León Sánchez Gil of Caisse d'Epargne.

Until now the team time trial played a significant role in the general standings, but tomorrow we will finally see which riders are in good shape, during the first mountain stage of the Giro from Padua to San Martino di Castrozza! Fireworks expected!

Race program for next part of May 2009

*13.05.2010 ITA HIS Giro d'Italia Stage 4

*14.05.2010 ITA HIS Giro d'Italia Stage 5

*15.05.2010 ITA HIS Giro d'Italia Stage 6

Continental Teams

Rock Racing

Roubaix Lille Metropole

Team Capinordic

Team Designa Kokken

Team Kuota - Indeland

Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse

Team Piemonte

Thüringer Energie Team

Trek Livestrong

Continental Teams

Drapac Porsche Cycling

Dukla Trencin Merida

ISD-Sport-Donetsk

Joker Bianchi

Liberty Seguros

Magnus Maximus Coffee.com

Miche - Silver Cross - Selle Italia

Ouch Presented by Maxxis

Palmeiras Resort / Prio

Rapha Condor

Continental Teams

Adria Mobil

Amore & Vita - McDonald's

Andorra-Grandvalira

Auber 93

Besson Chaussures - Sojasun

Bretagne - Schuller

CCC Polsat Polkowice

Colombia Es Pasion Coldeportes

Continental Team Differdange

DHL - Author

Professional Continental Teams

ISD - Neri

Landbouwkrediet - Colnago

LPR Brakes Farnese Vini

PSK Whirlpool - Author

Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli

Skil-Shimano

Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator

Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team

Vorarlberg - Corratec

Xacobeo Galicia

Professional Continental Teams

Acqua & Sapone - Caffè Mokambo

Agritubel

Andalucia CajaSur

Barloworld

BMC Racing Team

Ceramica Flaminia - Bossini Docce

Cervélo Test Team

Contentpolis-Ampo

CSF Group - Navigare

ELK Haus

Pro Tour Teams

BBox Bouygues Telecom

Caisse d'Epargne

Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne

Française des Jeux

Fuji - Servetto

Quick Step

Rabobank

Team Milram

Pro Tour Teams

Ag2r - La Mondiale

Astana[/color]

Euskaltel - Euskadi

Garmin - Slipstream

Lampre - NGC

Liquigas

Silence - Lotto

Team Columbia - High Road

Team Katusha

Team Saxo Bank

The renewed VIZLDB09 for PCM08 (and the new VIZLDB09 for PCM09)

Screenshot of the Week > November 09 > Week 1

Screenshot of the Week > October 09 > Week 4

Poll II Result/Intro Giro d'italia

Announcement

Result of the Poll: "Grand Tours"

Who to send to the Grand Tours?

GIRO:Kreuziger/Arashiro - TOUR:Gesink/Haussler 64x (*16-13-12-14-9)

GIRO:Gesink/Haussler - TOUR:Kreuziger/Arashiro 29x (*3-6-8-9-3)

GIRO:Kreuziger/Arashiro/Gesink/Haussler 10x (*2-0-0-3-5)

The result of the poll (103 voters) showed us that most Tinkoff fans want Kreuziger and Arashiro to ride the Giro d'Italia, while Gesink and Haussler should participate during the Tour de France.

*votes by nationality (Dutch-Portuguese-Spanish-Polish-German)

Intro Giro d'Italia

Yes, we are back! Last month I was busy making the renewed VIZLDB09 for PCM08 and the new one for PCM09, but now that is done I finally can continue with my career. Unfortunately, due to the editing on my comp, I lost the replays from Paris - Roubaix until now... So here we suddenly are at Lido di Venezia, in Italy, tomorrow the Giro d'Italia 2009 kicks off with a team time trial of 20,5km. It will be first Grand tour for many of our riders (and also staff), so our main goal during the Giro is to learn, and get used to the pressure that comes with historical long distance stage race like the Giro d'Italia. Kreuziger will be our leader, we hope to put up a good fight for the white jersey (U25) and maybe more!

Giro d'Italia Profile

Giro d'Italia Teams/Riders

2009 Part 1 April

Program

*01.04.2009 BEL 2.HC KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde

*06.04.2009 BEL UPT Ronde van Vlaanderen

*09.04.2009 BEL UPT Gent - Wevelgem

KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde

The first race of April, the KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, traditionally consists of three flat stages and a time trial at the end. Futhermore many classic riders use this stage race as a preparation for the cobble races ahead, like the famous Ronde van Vlaanderen. The first stage (the only one with cobble sections in it) was won by Grégory Rast of Astana, he was the strongest in the sprint of the group of three riders (Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Marcus Burghardt and Grégory Rast) who finsihed 3 munites ahead of the first big peloton including all other strong cobble riders.

Six minutes later after Grégory Rast had past the finishline, Yukiya Arashiro arrived at the finish (in the second big peloton). And although it was quite warm for begin April (18 degrees), the rain had made the race really hard, three of our Russian riders didn't make it to the finishline in time and therefore were forced to leave the race.

The two flat stage after the somewhat unlucky first stage for Tinkoff Credit Systems, ended up both in masssprints and what a suprise, they were both won by Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia - HTC! Yukiya Arashiro finished top 20 in both stages, which was quite alright, since he only had two helpers left and it was hard fighting for your spot during the masssprints with ProTour trains of Rabobank, Team Columbia - HTC and Quick Step taking control.

Traditionally the KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde ended with an individual time trial of 12km. Since Flecha, Burghardt and Rast had 3 minutes time advantage of all the other riders, the podium for the overall winner was already decided and although Flecha rode a better ITT then Rast, Rast still became overall winner of the KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde 2009, because of his bonification seconds earned during the first stage. Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank won the ITT and ended up 5th in the general rankings, the Belgium powercyclists Tom Boonen, Stijn Devolder and Sébastien Rosseler of Quick Step also seems to be ready for the April classics (all rode good ITT's). Also important to conclude: Rabobank, Quick Step and Team Saxo Bank probably will be the teams who will control the upcoming classics, all the topriders of these three teams are in good shape, so Heinrich Haussler knows who to keep an eye on during the upcoming races.

Ronde van Vlaanderen

Today was a historical day for Tinkoff Credit Systems, since it was the first time Tinkoff participated in a ProTour single day race and not just a ProTour race, but "Flanders' finest" is kicking off our ProTour single day race season! After two hour's racing with an average speed of 42 km/h, four men had made a breakaway and gained 3'15'' on the peloton. The escapees were are Simon Spilak (Lampre - N.G.C.), Franchesco Tomei (Lampre - N.G.C.), Wim de Vocht (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) and Huub Duyn (Garmin - Slipstream). But after 100km Quick Step moved to the front of the peloton and start gaining in on the four escapees and on the Molenberg everybody was back together again.

Then during the varentstraat Rabobank was leading the peloton and putting up a huge pace, and in combination with the strong wind there were riders dropping at the back all the time. So when the final began there were only 35 riders left the the first group (including Heinrich Haussler of Tinkoff Credit Systems), Rabobank changed their strategy for the final by sending Nick Nuyens ahead of the pack. And when Nuyens started climbing the Muur van Geraardsbergen the group behind was closing in on him fastly, but then Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni jumped to Nuyens and together they reached the top of the "Muur". During the Bosberg, Nuyens used all his energy to help out his teammate, behind the two Rabo's, Quick Step and Team Saxo Bank tried to get closer, but they couldn't close the gap of approximately 40 seconds.

Heinrich Haussler tried to get away from the pursuing group many times, but the pace was just to high to sneak away. With only 8km to go Flecha left Nuyens behind and was able to finish solo, what a great team effort by Rabobank! Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) and Stijn Devolder finished 40 seconds later (in a late attack they had tried to get to Flecha, but it was already too late). In the groupsprint behind them Heinrich Haussler finished 6th just behind Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Nick Nuyens (who after helping Flecha, fell back into the pursuing group).

Gent - Wevelgem

Gent-Wevelgem, the early-April classic between the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix, is often called the sprinters' classic due to its flat finishing terrain. But just like during the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the wind was really strong today and played a significant role during the race. Rabobank, Quick Step and Team Saxo Bank made the race hard from the beginning and after 130km the peloton was already ripped apart in many small groups, while the Monteberg and Kemmelberg (normally the dividers of the race) still had to come. After the first time the riders crossed the Monteberg and Kemmelberg a group of 55 riders formed the first group, still including many sprinters like Pozzato (Team Katusha), Gerard Ciolek (Team Milram) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin - Slipstream). Heinrich Haussler of Tinkoff Credit Systems was in good positon all the time and his Russian helpers keep him out of the wind most of the time.

After the second time the riders crossed the Monteberg and Kemmelberg most of the sprinters were left behind and the group was brought back to 20 riders. In the last 30km to the finish Quick Step controlled the group (5 of the 20 riders were Quick Steppers) and although many riders tried to get away (including Heinrich Haussler), none of them succeeded. So all eyes were on Quikc Step when they entered the last 10km, suprisely Tom Boonen (Quick Step) attacked with only 4km to go and the Quick Step's train suddenly disappeared. With this sudden move Tom Boonen tricked all other favorites and won Gent - Wevelgem in a very spectacular way!

Heinrich Haussler, who was feeling good all day, won the groupsprint behind Boonen, Marcus Burghardt of Team Columbia - HTC became 3rd. And Although Heinrich Haussler was a little bit disappointed with his second place, he now knows that he can compete with the ProTour riders and even can beat them. Unfortunately for us, Quick Step was too strong today.

Story

The races we didn't participate in: The Volta ao Alentejo em Bicicleta was won by Alessandro Proni of ISD - Neri (he won the 4th and only hilly stage). The other flat stage all ened up in masssprints; stage 1 and 2 were both won by Mikel Gaztañaga Echeverria of Contentpolis-Ampo, Stefan Radochla of ELK Haus won the 5th stage. Kristof Vandewalle was the fastest during Stage 3 (a individual time trial of 19.4km)

The Italian Settimana Ciclista Lombarda by Bergamasca was won by the Italian cyclist Michele Scarponi of Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli, he won two stages (4 and 6, both hilly). The Stage race started with an team time trial which was won by Silence-Lotto (Kenny Dehaes passed the finishline first). Chad Beyer of BMC racing Team won the second stage by outsprinting his fellow escaper Jens Mouris of Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team. The third stage, which ened up in a masssprint was won by the Acqua & Sapone - Caffè Mokambo rider Luca Paolini. As mentioned before Michele Scarponi won two of the three hilly stages, the other hilly stage (stage 5) was won by Gabriele Bosisio of LPR Brakes Farnese Vini.

Next to the two stage races, there were also three 1.1 events of the UCI Europe Tour we didn't participate in: the Route Adélie de Vitré was won by Luis Pasamontes Rodríguez of Caisse d'Epargne, Eros Capecchi finsished first during the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain and the Grand Prix de la ville de Rennes was won by Simone Cadamuro of Amica Chips - Knauf.

Announcement

Good news for Tinkoff Credit Systems and our sponsors: We received a wild-card for La Flèche Wallonne, which is really important since one of our sponsors goals is to win the "Walloon Arrow". Another sponsorgoal for April is to win the Scheldeprijs. Next to this good news, we received some rumours that a lot of ProTour teams (like Garmin - Slipstream) are trying to persuade Roman Kreuziger to join their teams next year, but Oleg Tinkov is determined to keep his young Czech talent onboard for years to come.

Race program for second half of April 2009

*13.04.2009 FRA HIS Paris - Roubaix

*15.04.2009 BEL 1.HC Scheldeprijs

*20.04.2009 NED UPT Amstel Gold Race

*22.04.2009 USA 2.HC Tour de Georgia

*23.04.2009 BEL HIS La Flèche Wallonne

*27.04.2009 BEL HIS Liège - Bastogne - Liège

2009 Recap Pre-Season

Announcement

During a special press conference Oleg Tinkov, general manager of Tinkoff Credit Systems, happily announced that his team received a wildcard for the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia from RCS Sport (the organizer of the Giro). Also Tinkov's intention to sign promising Russian riders was a topic of discussion. Oleg told the present cycling reporters that he recently signed another young Russian: Alexei Bobrov (19 year's old, northern classic rider) for 2010. Hopefully he will become a good helper during cobble stages for Heinrich Haussler next season.

Oleg's View

The first three months of the renewed Tinkoff Credit Systems were amazing! We were able to win 4 semi classics (Etruschi, Eroica, Köln and Dwars door Vlaanderen), 1 stage (5th stage Andalucía) and the mountain jersey of the Vuelta a Andalucía. But ofcourse our biggest achievement was winning Paris - Nice!

As mentioned before we received a wildcard for the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia. Therefore, we designed a special Giro d'Italia Tinkoff jersey. Furthermore, since it looks like Heinrich Haussler will be wearing his Continental leader's jersey for a long time, we designed a special Conti Tinkoff jersey aswell (both are shown below).

Also Tinkov's intention to sign bigger names for next season has let to a shortlist, that is shown below. Not only is Tinkoff doing well sportively speaking, but also on the financial side everything is positive. The rider's salaries together are exactly the same as our main sponsor revenues (Oleg's investment is € 214.000 monthly).

The staff salaries (€ 25.000) are paid by our team sponsors (Cervélo and VIZLEFX; together they invest € 42.900 monthly), so if you take out the travelling expenses for races (negative) and prize money (positive) we are in the black numbers every month. At the end of the year we hope to have € 500.000 for signing new riders and hopefully even attract more sponsor revenues.

Achievements

*09.02.2009 ITA 1.1 Gran Premio Costa degli Etruschi, Heinrich Hausler

*11.02.2009 MAS 2.HC Le Tour de Langkawi Stage 8, Roman Kreuziger

*19.02.2009 ESP 2.1 Vuelta a Andalucía (Ruta Ciclista Del Sol) Stage 5, Robert Gesink

*19.02.2009 ESP 2.1 Vuelta a Andalucía (Ruta Ciclista Del Sol) Overall Mountain Rankings, Robert Gesink

*08.03.2009 ITA 1.1 Monte Paschi Strade Bianche Eroica Toscana, Heinrich Hausler

*16.03.2009 FRA HIS Paris - Nice Overall General Rankings, Robert gesink

*24.03.2009 GER 1.1 Rund um Köln, Heinrich Hausler

*26.03.2009 BEL 1.1 Dwars door Vlaanderen, Heinrich Hausler

Jerseys

2009 Part 3 March

Program

*26.03.2009 BEL 1.1 Dwars door Vlaanderen

*29.03.2009 FRA 2.HC Critérium International

*30.03.2009 BEL 1.HC E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke

*31.03.2009 BEL 1.1 De Brabantse Pijl

Dwars door Vlaanderen

SIMULATED: Heinrich Haussler of Tinkoff Credit Systems was able to celebrate his 4th victory of the season by outsprinting Tom Boonen of Quick Step. Rabobank was unlucky during this rainy and cold (6 degrees Celsius) edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen (traditionally, the start of the Flemish cycling week). Most of the time they controlled the race, but during the last cobble sections Nick Nuyens had a flat tire and Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni fell to the ground. Kristof Goddaert of Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator finished 3rd, one minute behind Haussler and Boonen.

Critérium International

The 2009 edition of the annual French stage race, Critérium International, surprisely was won by a non-time trial specialist: Sandy Casar of Française des Jeux won the second (hilly) stage with such a big difference (the gap was 2 minutes)that the time trial specialist specialist in the last stage (an individual time trial of 10km) didn't have a chance to takeover the leader's jersey. Yohann Gène, the French sprinter of Bbox Bouygues Télécom won the first stage (masssprint), David Boucher of Landbouwkrediet - Colnago won the individual time trial, he was one of the few riders who were able to ride when it wasn't raining yet.

Roman Kreuziger of Tinkoff Credit Systems finished 5th during the time trial and ended up 10th in the general rankings, Yukiya Arashiro fell during the rainy time trial, but could continue and didn't had any injuries.

E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke

All eyes were on Heinrich Haussler of Tinkoff Credit Systems today, since he won Dwars door Vlaanderen last Wednesday (the first race of the Flemish cycling week: Dwars door Vlaanderen, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, de Brabantse Pijl, KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde and the Ronde van Vlaanderen) he is the man to beat these days. Normally the E3 prijs is more difficult then Dwars door Vlaanderen, but because of the good conditions (sunny and 12 degrees Celsius) more riders then normally do, were able to be in the front group when the final began. At the end of the race with only 10km to the finish, a group of 20 riders (including Heinrich Haussler) were preparing themselves for a big groupsprint, but they were all surprised by George Hincapie of Team Columbia - HTC, who just had joined the first group and right away placed a strong attack. The other teams (Rabobank, Quick Step and Team Saxo Bank) were all undecided who should go after Hincapie. George Hincapie didn't look back one time and finished solo, 20 seconds ahead of the big group (Haussler won the groupsprint, infront of Fabian Cancellara of Team Saxo Bank).

De Brabantse Pijl

SIMULATED: Michael Albasini of Team Columbia - HTC won the second race of the Flemish cycling week: De Brabantse Pijl. He was the fastest during the last uphill groupsprint of 8 riders (including Robert Gesink, who finsihed second). The Skil-Shimano jersey was also on the podium thanks to Piet Rooijakkers.

Story

The races we didn't participate in: The first stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León was won by the old italian sprinter Alberto Loddo of Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli, his second win of the season. The second stage, a individual time trial of 28.6km was won by Bradley Marc Wiggins of Garmin - Slipstream. The first difficult stage of this year's edition of the spanish stage race held in Castile and León, a hilly stage with uphillsprint, was won by Bram Tankink of Rabobank (he was the strongest of the early breakaway group). Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank won stage 4 (a mountain stage with finish on top). The last stage ended traditionally in a mass sprint; winner Francisco José Pacheco Torres of Contentpolis-Ampo. Bradley Marc Wiggins of Garmin - Slipstream won the general rankings of the Vuelta a Castilla y León, mainly because of his outstanding time trial.

The Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, an Italian stage race of five days in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, is often used by cyclists as a training for the Ardennes classics (mid-April). The first stage had a steep climb followed by a 12km downhill to the finsihline, Dario Andriotto of Acqua & Sapone - Caffè Mokambo was on top first and managed to keep his lead intact during the downhill and won the stage. Stage 2, a team time trial of 14km, was won by Team Katusha. The two flat stages (stage 3 and 5, both masssprints) were won respectively by Andrea Moletta of Miche - Silver Cross - Selle Italia and Alex Nicki Sylvester Rasmussen of Team Saxo Bank. The mountain stage of Settimana internazionale was won by Eros Capecchi of Fuji-Servetto. Alexander Bocharov of Team Katusha won the general ranking, mainly because of Katusha's team time trial and a good result during the mountain stage.

The Gran Premio Llodio 2009 (also known as Laudioko Sari Nagusia) had, after 4 year's of spanish winners, a non-spanish winner: Simon Gerrans of Cervelo Test Team. The Australian rider won the groupsprint of 6 riders (including Rigoberto Uràn of Caisse d'Epargne)

Calendar

Race program for April 2009

*01.04.2009 BEL 2.HC KBC-Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde

*06.04.2009 BEL UPT Ronde van Vlaanderen

*09.04.2009 BEL UPT Gent - Wevelgem

*13.04.2009 FRA HIS Paris - Roubaix

*15.04.2009 BEL 1.HC Scheldeprijs

*20.04.2009 NED UPT Amstel Gold Race

*22.04.2009 USA 2.HC Tour de Georgia

*23.04.2009 BEL HIS La Flèche Wallonne

*27.04.2009 BEL HIS Liège - Bastogne - Liège

Poll I Result

Announcement

Result of the Poll: "Direction Tinkoff Credit Systems"

Who should we try to sign for next season?

Denis Nikolayevich Menchov (RUS) and Sergei Valeryevich Ivanov (RUS) 33x (*5-5-10-8-5)

Takashi Miyazawa (JPN) and Sebastian Langeveld (NED) 2x (*0-1-0-1-0)

Yuri Viktorovich Trofimov (RUS) and Mikhail Borisovich Ignatiev (RUS) 19x (*5-2-2-3-7)

Nikolay Vasilievich Trusov (RUS) and Pavel Brutt (RUS) 4x (*1-1-0-1-1)

František Raboň (CZE) and CIOLEK Gerald (GER) 20x (*3-7-1-3-6)

Alexander Viktorovich Kolobnev (RUS) and Vladimir Alexandrovich Karpets (RUS) 22x (*7-2-0-7-6)

The result of the poll (100 voters) showed us that most Tinkoff fans will be indifferent if we sign Miyazawa, Langeveld, Trusov or Brutt. A lot of voters would like to see bigger names on Tinkoff's riderslist of 2010 like Karpet, Ignatiev, Kolobnev, Trofimov, Ciolek and Raboň. Russian cyclist icons Menchov and Ivanov were named most by a large majority of the fans.

*votes by nationality (Dutch-Portuguese-Spanish-Polish-German)