Oleg Tinkov piles the pressure onto Contador

Former team owner Oleg Tinkov has blasted Contador, this time calling the Spanish champion an "investment scam"

Last Friday night Tinkov wrote on Twiter wrote: "Contador has not won a WorldTour race for 11 months. He has received 4 million euros since in salary. It's a real scam for investors". In fact, the 34-year-old rider at Trek has not won the WorldTour since 2016. Last year, under the colors of the Tinkoff team, Contador won the Critérium du Dauphiné prologue, His last victory at the highest level of cycling."

Tinkov is correct in his facts, Alberto Contador hasn't won a major race since then, despite animating a lot of races this year and coming close to winning. So far Contador has finished second overall in four of the five stage races he’s raced this year.

Alberto Contador's last WorldTour victory in 2016

Alberto Contador's last WorldTour win was at the prologue at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He beat Richie Porte and Chris Froome in the short time trial in a winning time of 11m 36s. Chris Froome went on to win the Dauphine and Contador finished in 5th place.

The Pressure is Mounting

Tinkov's comments will put the pressure on Contador to produce results.

Other riders who won't be on that level of salary have already produced results.

Without winning a major race or stage this year Contador would find it very difficult to negotiate a new contract when his current contract comes up for renewal.

Contador is aiming to win the Tour de France with his Trek-Segafredo team, however he faces stiff opposition from Chris Froome and Team Sky and Nairo Quintana and Team Movistar.

This will also pile the pressure onto Trek-Segafredo's management team who will have to justify his signing at the salary he's received, if he doesn't win a major title this year.

It's widely known that Tinkov and Contador didn't get on during their time together at the Tinkov team.

Tinkov was particularly critical of Contador following the 2016 Lombardia. Last month, the outspoken Russian launched an unprecedented attack on Contador, calling him “a piece of Spanish s**t”. Tinkov venting his frustration of paying Contador vast sums of money without producing any significant results.

Contador is two times winner of the Tour de France (2007,2009), two times winner of the Giro (2008,2015) and 3 times winner of the Vuelta a Espana (2008,2012,2015).

Contador finished 4th in the Vuelta last year and won the Dauphine ITT prologue with no major Grand Tour wins.

Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title after testing positive for clenbuterol. He was therefore stripped of the 2011 Giro title too.

So far this year Contador has finished 2nd overall in Paris–Nice, Vuelta a Andalucía, Volta a Catalunya, and the Tour of the Basque Country.