Oleg Tinkov announces the Tinkoff Tour de France team in a very Oleg Tinkov way (video)
Oleg Tinkov conducts a 15 minute live Facebook video to announce the Tinkoff team for the Tour de France, and a lot more...
You didn't think Oleg Tinkov would go into his final Tour de France as a team owner quietly, did you? Rather than have his media people send out a press release with a list of names of who will ride the Tour for Tinkoff, the Russian conducted a Facebook live video to announce it.
And even then, the maverick bank owner didn't just settle for a quick run down of the names, instead treating us to a tour of his bank's head office in Moscow, getting involved in a bit of Brexit banter and a bit of Team Sky bashing.
If you want to see what an office looks like in Russia, the first few minutes of the video are great. As is Tinkov's interaction with Brit Oliver Hughes, who is Chairman of the Tinkoff Bank and number one target for British jokes.
"He's still in depression about the Brexit, and the British had another Brexit last night," Tinkoff joked, referencing England's loss to Iceland in that football tournament we've forgotten all about.
"[Tinkoff] are going to kick the arse of Britain's [Chris] Froome or this f*cking Sky, is that what you're talking about?" Tinkov then asks Hughes when he asserts that Tinkoff are going to win the Tour.
"Actually, [Rupert] Murdoch is Australian anyway. You've got such a complicated team...it's owned by an Australian and they carry a British flag..." Tinkov continued.
"There's nothing complicated about the Tinkoff team," Hughes replied before Tinkov continued his walking tour.
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>>> Watch Oleg Tinkov's team announcement here
Come the seven minute mark - and it really is worth watching all of it if you have time - Tinkov finally gets down to revealing his riders using an incredibly complicated Microsoft Powerpoint presentation.
It's very Partridge-esque when Tinkov reaches the end of the presentation and a picture of himself pops up, almost to his own surprise.
But he saved the best til last. Asking the producer if there was anything he forgot, he finishes with style.
"Ciao, bye, enough. Boom, boom, boom, we f*ck Sky anyway," he finishes, before hitting the camera with his hand.
Oh yeah, the Tinkoff team was announced. Here's who's in it...
Alberto Contador, Peter Sagan, Rafal Majka, Roman Kreuziger, Oscar Gatto, Matteo Tosatto, Robert Kiserlovski, Maciej Bodnar and Michael Valgren.
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Stuart Clarke is a News Associates trained journalist who has worked for the likes of the British Olympic Associate, British Rowing and the England and Wales Cricket Board, and of course Cycling Weekly. His work at Cycling Weekly has focused upon professional racing, following the World Tour races and its characters.
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