After Oleg Tinkov had criticized Alberto Contador at this year's Tour de France, it seemed that the two would part ways at the end of the season but with today's announcement that Tinkov has bought Team Saxo-Tinkoff, they will now be working even closer together instead. At today's press conference, Contador was keen to stress that their public spat is now behind them and that he is looking forward to being closer to Bjarne Riis in the future.

When rumours started to indicate that Oleg Tinkov was likely to take over the ownership of Team Saxo-Tinkoff, one issue was of particular interest. The team's main star is Alberto Contador but the Spaniard has had a strained relationship with the Russian and it was hard to imagine a future collaboration between the duo.

Nonetheless, Contador and Tinkov will be working together in 2014 after today's announcement that Tinkov has indeed bought the team from Bjarne Riis. The Dane will continue in a role as general manager for the coming three years while Contador has a contract to stay on the team until the end of the 2015 season.

The pair had no internal disagreements prior to this year's Tour de France when Tinkov was still convinced that Contador was going to win La Grande Boucle. As the race went on and it became more and more apparent that Contador was unable to beat Chris Froome, Tinkov's assessment of Contador's abilities changed dramatically and he publicly criticized the star rider of the team he co-sponsored.

After the race, Tinkov and Team Saxo-Tinkoff decided to part ways and the Russian did nothing to dampen his criticism of Contador. When the Spaniard was linked to a move to Fernando Alonso's team, Tinkov indicated that he would consider a continuation of his sponsorship if Contador found a new home.

Time has healed the wounds though and at today's press conference, Contador was full of praise of Tinkov's decision to take owner the ownership of the team.

"I think in these times where there is a dearth of sponsors coming into the sport, it can only be a good thing when Oleg comes in and brings his wealth to the sport," he said. "I know that many will be raising their eyebrows at our relationship after things that came into the public after the Tour de France. I can tell you that Oleg and I have spent a lot of time together. Whatever happened immediately after the Tour is a long way behind us."

Riis will continue in the team for the coming three years as he has been appointed as the new general manager. As he will now leave a lot of economic decisions to Tinkov, he will have more time to focus on the sporting aspects.

Contador has often stated that Riis is the best manager he has ever worked with, and he is happy to get the chance to spend more time with the Dane.

"It's a great thing for the team for a number of reasons," he said. "First of all, it brings stability to the existing structure. The riders who are there to help me to achieve my ambitions, will have their futures guaranteed for the coming years. One thing which is very important to me is that Bjarne Riis will be much more involved in the sporting aspects of the team. He will be closer to us. In my point of view it is a good step."

The assessment was backed by Nicolas Roche who was also present at the press conference. The Irishman rode his best ever grand tour at this year's Vuelta a Espana where he finished 5th.

It could have been even better, had he not struggled in the cold on the stage to Andorra. The next day he made a brave attack to recoup some of the lost time and Roche credits Riis for the tactics behind the move that saw several of his teammates get into the early move to provide assistance to the team leader later in the race.

"I back up Alberto in his idea of giving Bjarne a lot more freedom to be able to follow us at the races," he said. "I think I am a great example that when Bjarne is 99 or 100% at a race, he is able to do a big difference. The day when I did most to recover the time that I lost, Bjarne worked a lot on the tactics. Maybe nothing could have been done to make me go faster the day before but we definitely worked on a plan to make me go faster the next day."

The team's 2014 roster currently consists of 24 riders but more rider signings are expected to be announced in the near future. Ivan RoVny, Nikolay Trusov and Bruno Pires all attended the recent training camp but it has still not been confirmed that they will ride on the team in 2014.