Bjarne Riis has been playing his cards close to his chest. Rumours persist that US IT services firm Sungard are set to replace Danish brokerage Saxo Bank as the top sponsor to his team but the deal has yet to be announced.
But look online and www.team-sungard.com is registered to a Danish name, Kasper Soerensen. Is this a sign that the name has been reserved by Riis Cycling? Or has some crafty Dane decided to “squat” on the domain.
Fans of amateur arithmetic might like to add more than 2+2 to the equation: visit team-saxobank.com and the banner images at the top of the page barely display the Saxo logos, instead the word Sungard on the back of the shorts is very prominent.
Several other teams are hunting for replacement sponsors. If the team with the likes of Andy Schleck and Fabian Cancellara, as well as Fuglsang and Breschel as well as other talents, is struggling to name sponsors for next year, it makes you wonder how the likes of Milram and BBox are doing.