Bjarne Riis bid farewell to cycling after nearly four decades as a professional cyclist, team owner, and manager. As an iconic figure from the controversial 1990s, the winner of the 1996 Tour de France stated that his time in the sport is a “closed chapter,” with his focus now turning to family and new business ventures.
Business Plans
In September, Riis unveiled his plans for the first time, revealing that his family had returned from Switzerland to Denmark. Recently, he co-founded Riis Energy, a company dedicated to selling heat pumps imported from Lithuania. At the same time, Riis took on a role on the board of Nørtec, a company specializing in the marketing of electric vehicle charging stations.
Doping-Related Past
Riis’s doping past was fully exposed in 2007 when he admitted to using EPO, growth hormone, and cortisone during the 1996 Tour. He famously declared, “My yellow jersey is in a box in my garage. You can come and get it.” His victory was struck from the record books, akin to Armstrong’s, before being reinstated in 2008 with an asterisk.
Since then, Riis went on to play a significant role in the CSC-ProTeam project, which later became Saxo Bank-Tinkoff, as a team owner and later as a manager. In this capacity, he oversaw the victories of Carlos Sastre, Andy Schleck, and Alberto Contador in the Tour de France.
He also faced new doping allegations from cyclists on the team, including Tyler Hamilton and Michael Rasmussen. This occurred during one of his final stints in the sport as the team manager and co-owner of the NTT Pro Cycling team.
