OLEG TINKOV, the Russian multimillionaire owner of the Tinkoff-Saxo team, has challenged the four best riders in the world to contest all three Grand Tours in 2015 for €1m.
The eccentric Russian would like to see Alberto Contador, who rides for his Tinkoff-Saxo squad, Team Sky's Chris Froome, Astana's Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana of Movistar race in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana in the same year.
The €1m purse could be divided equally, or be awarded as a prize to the rider who places best at the tours of Italy, France and Spain.
Many fans are already excited about the 2015 Tour de France, where the quartet are expected to meet to contest for the yellow jersey won by Nibali in 2014, and the route of the Giro d'Italia announced earlier this week suggested a Giro-Tour double might be possible. But few riders ride three Grand Tours in a calendar year, let alone contest for the overall victory.
Tinkov called for his gruelling idea to be adopted in an interview with Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport and then took to Twitter to 'call out' Contador's rivals, including addressing Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford.
Tinkov wrote: "dont be a chiken! £Real3GTchallenge"
Jonathan Vaughters, head of the Garmin-Sharp team, suggested Tinkov's plan was good for cycling. "In every successful sport, the best athletes compete against each other, all year, in the biggest events. So, yes, I agree," Vaughters said.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso's foray into cycling will not take place in 2015, but the UCI will welcome further discussions over a team backed by the former Formula One world champion.
The UCI yesterday announced the teams who have registered for racing licences for the forthcoming season, and an Alonso-backed team is not among them despite prolonged discussions over his entry into the sport. "The UCI has had very cordial and productive discussions with Fernando Alonso and his representatives concerning a possible team for 2015," a statement read.
"Whilst this has not led to a team for 2015, we thank Fernando Alonso for his interest and engagement and look forward to continuing discussions with him and/or his advisers."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article