Former Saxo bank CEO Lars Seier Christensen confirmed that he is "working on a cycling project with Bjarne Riis," but said that it "does not involve buying back the Tinkoff team from Oleg Tinkov," according to CYCLING NEWS. Seier hinted that the project will "address the economics of running a cycling team," but held off any specifics for Thursday's press conference, which will be held in Copenhagen. Seier wrote, "One of the difficult things about being involved in sports teams is the tendency for all income eventually to feed through to players’ (or riders’, as it may be) salaries. A sponsor wants to see his money go to a strengthened squad, not to beef up the team owner’s bottom line." Seier backed the Saxo Bank team for eight seasons while CEO, and "forged a close friendship with Riis." Seier: "Without spilling all the beans, let me give a bit of direction as to where the project is going, or not going: Yes, of course the project has at least something to do with cycling. No, we have not bought back the old team even though it is clear that my friend and former partner, Oleg Tinkov, wants to pull out of the sport next season" (CYCLING NEWS, 2/22).
BAHRAIN CYCLING TEAM: CYCLING NEWS' Stephen Farrand wrote more details of the Bahrain Cycling Team project have emerged in Denmark and Italy, with reports that both Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan are "being targeted as team leaders for the new WorldTour team backed by Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa." Riis has been linked to the project with Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet "suggesting that he will become team manager." However, two other team managers currently in the sport are reportedly "also under consideration for the role of team manager and could see the Bahrain Cycling Team buy out and take over an existing team in the peloton." Ekstra Bladet has suggested that the new Bahrain team could eventually team up with Riis and buy the Tinkoff team’s license to "facilitate the creation of the new team and so secure the services of Sagan, who is under contract with Tinkoff until the end of 2017" (CYCLING NEWS, 2/24).
