Cycling Juggernaut Forming in Russia as Katuysha Team Begins to Take Form

Oleg Tinkoff has big plans for cycling in Russia. He has decided to drastically overhaul his team, and has found three big Russian companies to come aboard as sponsors: Gazprom, Itera and Ros Technologie. With a fresh budget in the tens of millions, the Katuysha cycling team should be a force to be reckoned with in 2009, like the Russian-made missiles the team is named after.

Already Oleg Tinkoff has managed to find a few high profile athletes to headline his team. For the classics, he has secured Belgian Gert Steegmans and Italian Filippo Pozzato. The two powerful one day specialists will provide a vicious one-two punch in the early season classics, and they'll be invaluable in the grand tours as support riders.

For other high profile signings, a slew of big names have been mentioned, among them Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre, Fabian Cancellara, and Robbie McEwen. Take a moment to consider the prospect of Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre on the same team, not to mention the extra fire power of three time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara. And Katuysha also will have Pavel Brutt, Mikhail Ignatiev and Vasil Kiryienka returning for 2009.

Katuysha, at least in the early going, is looking alot like the old T-Mobile squads from several years ago. They'll be able to contend from the beginning of the year until the end, providing that Pozzato and Steegmans can co-exist in their pursuit of classics victories.