Copenhagen (AFP)
The Dane Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour who recognized in 2007 having doped in the 1990s, those of his successes, announced Wednesday his return to the professional peloton as manager of the South African team NTT Pro Cycling ( ex-Dimension Data).
"We are going to have the opportunity to create one of the best cycling teams in the world," said the former rider at a press conference in Copenhagen, announcing the entry of his company Virtu Cycling into the capital of the South African team, up to a third of the shares.
"Many say that this is my comeback in cycling, I do not really agree (...) I never really left cycling," said Riis.
In 1999, at the end of his racing career marked by his victory in the 1996 Tour and by six stage successes in the grand Tours, Bjarne Riis had converted to team management with CSC which became Saxo Bank then Tinkoff , where he notably directed Laurent Jalabert and Alberto Contador, before leaving the peletons in 2015.
Virtu Cycling, which the former cycling champion owns with businessmen Lars Seier and Jan Bech Andersen, previously had two continental teams: Virtu Cycling for women and Team Waoo for men, dissolved in 2019.
In July 2021, the Tour de France will depart from Denmark for the first time, with an individual 13 km time trial in Copenhagen.
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