Saxo Bank cease partnership with Tinkoff team

After eight years sponsoring the Tinkoff-Saxo team, in its various forms, Saxo Bank have announced they will not renew their sponsorship for 2016.

Oleg Tinkov celebrates Alberto Contador's Giro d'Italia win with the Tinkoff-Saxo team in May Source: Getty Images

The Copenhagen-based online foreign exchange brokerage firm made the announcement on Thursday.

The bank co-sponsored the CSC team in 2008, which was set up by Bjarne Riis. Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France for the team that year, setting the tone for a string of high profile victories by one of the world's most sucessful cycling teams. Russian businessman, Oleg Tinkov, who is known for his somewhat erratic posts on social media, bought the team from Riis in 2013.

Speculation around the bank's departure from the sponsorship has been going on for a while after team manager Bjarne Riis left the cycling outfit in March after a dispute with Tinkov, founder of Russia's Tinkoff Bank, which is the other main sponsor for the team.

Oleg Tinkov asked Saxo Bank to step down from sponsoring the team, according to Cyclingnews, after they refused to increase their financial contribution for the upcoming race season.

Following another successful year for the team on the road, Tinkov will need to find another sponsor or single-handedly support the hefty contracts of Alberto Contador as he aims for another Tour de France title, and world champion sprinter, Peter Sagan.

Over the last eight years Saxo Bank has seen the team in its various guises acheive 22 world and national titles, five Grand Tour overall victories and 27 Grand Tour stage wins, according to the company's post on Twitter.

Rumors are already circulating the Danish bank will resurface in the professional men’s peloton, supporting a new team managed, once again, by Riis. The 1996 Tour de France winner, who later confessed to doping, has been involved in cycling management since 1999.