Riis gets his man

Team Sungard-Saxo Bank has grabbed more headlines recently thanks to the exodus of riders and the Contador controversy. Only now Bjarne Riis has made a signing designed to change this: 35-year-old journalist Anders Damgaard. Damgaard (pictured left) will work as the team’s new press officer from January. He’s worked with Berlingske Tidende and sporten.dk, where … Read more

Porte’s Contract Poker

Featuring an interview with Richie Porte, the great Real Peloton podcast touched on a curious story that’s worth a peek. Not so rich now Richie Richie Porte has a standard neo-pro two year contract with Bjarne Riis that ends after the 2011 season. Only with the stellar season he’s had, he got dollar-signs in his … Read more

Saxo Sale

Saxo Bank HQ: yours for only €500 million Danish company Saxo Bank isn’t really a bank, it’s an online currency trading platform. And it’s up for sale, according to the Copenhagen Post. It has three principal shareholders, Kim Fournais, Lars Seier Christensen and private equity General Atlantic have appointed investment banks to handle the sale. … Read more

Transfer Games: what next for Riis and Astana?

For a long time the transfer season revolved around Alberto Contador. The saga of his team for 2011 meant many other big names could not move until the Spaniard made up his mind. For example Astana recruited Kreuziger and Menchov went to Geox but only after Contador had announced he was going and in turn … Read more

Secret Agents

Mr 10% It’s a good time to be a rider agent. These figures work behind the scenes to negotiate contracts for their riders, arranging everything from the job in the first place to negotiating side deals, for example with a sunglasses or shoe supplier. Why’s it so good right now? Well, first is that it’s … Read more

Showdown

Sunday’s photograph takes shape already We’ve had one of the most mountainous Tours in recent memory and Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck are barely indistinguishable, a mere 8 seconds after 88 hours of racing. That’s a margin of 0.0025%. There’s some irony in the 52km time trial as the course is so flat that the … Read more

Contador to sign with Riis?

Right, this is a blog and not a newspaper or website with high standards of journalism to uphold. It’s not cyclingnews.com either. I feel I can float ideas even when I can’t get them officially confirmed. Fran Contador is a busy man So here goes. Astana can’t afford to keep Contador. His brother, acting as … Read more