Nov 24, 2006
Hamilton Signs With Tinkoff
tuttobiciweb.com reports that Tyler Hamilton has signed with the Tinkoff Credit Systems Team for 2007. The long rumored move is said to be complete as Hamilton joins a 17 man continental Italian squad.
Oliver Piscina says that “With Tyler on the team we will have an immediate increase in the quality of our team”
Tinkoff is made up of riders from the now disbanded LPR team. We understand his past, but every athlete deserves a second chance”
Hamilton says:
“I made a mistake and paid a high price” said Hamilton after signing his contract with Tinkoff.
“Now I am ready to get back into the game. I spent many months in agony and now I am back thanks to the help of my family and friends. Now I am ready for a new challenge and for this I want to thank Tinkoff Credit Systems who offered me a new opportunity.”
Now that Hamilton served his two year suspension he can make a return to racing, but not on a ProTour team. His original suspension would have allowed Hamilton to re-integrate to a ProTour level squad. After a few failed appeals his suspension start date fell under a new rule. The rule excludes riders convicted of doping from returning to the ProTour until two years after the end of their two year suspension.
Tinkoff Roster:
Tyler Hamilton (Usa), Elia Aggiano (Ita), Pavel Brutt (Rus), Ilya Chernetsky (Rus), Salvatore Commesso (Ita), Daniele Contrini (Ita), Danilo Hondo (Ger), Sergey Klimov (Rus), Mikhail Ignatyev (Rus), Ruggero Marzoli (Ita), Anton Mindlin (Rus), Evgueni Petrov (Rus), Ivan Rovny (Rus), Alexander Serov (Rus), Ricardo Gonzales Serrano (Esp), Nikolay Trusov(Rus) e Steffen Weigold (Ger).