Contract signing would turn around previous tensions with team
Known to have been in talks with for several weeks, the Katusha team has given an indication today that an announcement of Denis Menchov’s signing may well be imminent. The Russian squad and the country’s top stage race rider had contact in previous seasons but could never finalise terms; things appear more promising this time round, not least because his Geox TMC team has crumbled due to the main sponsor walking away from the sport.
“Talks with Menchov have finished. More details will come soon,” the team stated this morning.
According to Velochrono.fr, a deal has indeed been agreed, and a contract is likely to be signed on Wednesday. The rider is also said to be joining the team at its Tuscan training camp then.
Menchov spoke to the team when it was first established in 2009, but no agreement was reached. He and general manager Andrei Tchmil had talks again last August, with Menchov’s departure from Rabobank creating the possibility of an accord. However those discussions were once again fruitless, and the rider hinted afterwards that he wasn’t offered enough. “The situation was a bit strange,” he told Biciciclismo then. “His [Tchmil’s] behavior didn’t seem the best, although he defends his position and I defend mine. I think that I deserved a different attitude.
“Being a Russian team and a national project of cycling, I think that I ought to have had a different approach; not the same as with the rest of the riders who were in the market.”
Dealings with Tchmil became more tense, with the former Classic specialist issuing an open letter about the talks. He claimed both Menchov and his management had problems with the rules and discipline at Team Katusha, and ended the statement saying that he would never be welcome at Team Katusha while he ‘continues to be managed this way.’
In response, the rider’s agent Raimondo Scimone threatened legal action.
However those previous tensions became less relevant after Hans Michael Holczer took over from Tchmil as team manager. His prospects of an agreement were further boosted by the signing of Viatcheslav Ekimov to the Russian Global Cycling Project (RGCP), an overall umbrella group overseeing the team and other squads such as the development outfit. “It is now pushing us in the right direction,” Menchov told www.mn.ru in mid-November. “The appearance of Ekimov immediately put the process of negotiation into motion.
“There are detailed and very fruitful negotiations. The contract has not yet been signed, but I don’t rule out that under favourable circumstances, it can happen any time soon.
“It seems to me that Katusha is interested in me. I’ve said many times that I am very interested in it. For me personally and for my career, it would be the right move.”
As the rest of his Geox-TMC team continues to look for new contracts, it appears that Menchov’s contract talks have finally been successful and that the announcement will come in the very near future.
He has a strong history in Grand Tours, winning the Vuelta a España in 2005 and 2007, taking the Giro d’Italia in 2009 and finishing third, fourth and fifth overall in the Tour de France.
The team has boosted its lineup for 2012, signing riders such as Menchov’s former Rabobank team-mate Oscar Freire, his current team-mate Xavier Florencio (Geox-TMC), Alexander Kristoff (BMC Racing), Simon Spilak (Lampre) and Angel Vicioso (Androni-Giocattoli).