Bjarne Lykkegård Riis (; born 3 April 1964), nicknamed ''The Eagle from Herning'' ( da, Ørnen fra Herning), is a Danish former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

who placed first in the

1996 Tour de France The 1996 Tour de France was the 83rd edition of the Tour de France, starting on 29 June and ending on 21 July, featuring 19 regular stages, 2 individual time trials, a prologue and a rest day (10 July). It was won by Danish rider Bjarne Riis. T ...

. For many years he was the owner and later manager of the Oleg Tinkov associated Russian

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road cycling, the UCI World Tour or UCI ProTour ...

. Other career highlights include placing first in the Amstel Gold Race in 1997, multiple Danish National Championships, and stage wins in the Giro d'Italia. On 25 May 2007, he admitted that he placed first in the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consist ...

using banned substances, and he was no longer considered the winner by the Tour's organizers. In July 2008, the Tour reconfirmed his victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences.

Career

Born in

Herning Herning () is a Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 50,565 (1 January 2022)Herning CK Herning Cykle Klub (or Herning CK) is an amateur road bicycle racing club, located in Herning, Denmark, and founded April 11, 1937 on initiative by E.V.Johansen, with Poul Schmidt as chairman. A number of the best Danish professional riders, i ...

. When he was not selected for the 1984 Summer Olympics, former cyclist Kim Andersen advised Riis to start his professional career not in Italy, but in Luxembourg. His professional career started in 1986, his first result was a fifth-place finish in the

GP Wallonie The Grand Prix de Wallonie is an annual road bicycle race held annually in Wallonia, Belgium. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It has a profile similar to the Ardennes classics The Ardennes classics a ...

that year. Following a few years with no personal wins, he had yet to impress when his contract ran out in 1988. At the 1988

Tour of European Community Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents ...

race, while riding for the

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...

team, Riis and fellow Danish rider

Kim Eriksen Kim Eriksen (born 10 February 1964) is a Danish former cyclist. He competed in the individual road race and the team time trial events at the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also ...

were contacted by the former Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon from the Système U team. Fignon was leading the Tour of European Community race, but he needed a few riders to help him secure the victory. In the hope of earning a contract with Système U, Riis helped Fignon achieve the victory and in December 1988 he moved to sports director

Cyrille Guimard Cyrille Guimard (born 20 January 1947) is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe, won the Tour de Fr ...

's Système U team as a support rider for Fignon. For the next three years Riis rode as Fignon's eternal helper in both flat and mountainous terrain, and they became close friends. Riis helped Fignon win the 1989 Giro d'Italia, while Riis himself won his first professional victory as he secured the 9th stage of the Giro.

Tour de France success

When Fignon left Guimard in 1992, Bjarne Riis contacted fellow Danish rider Rolf Sørensen, who got him a job as a rider for Italian team Ariostea under sporting director Giancarlo Ferretti. Riis won

stage 7 ''Stage 7'' is a 30-minute American TV drama anthology series that was broadcast on CBS from December 12, 1954, through September 25, 1955. This program premiered in December 1954 with the title ''Your Favorite Playhouse'' with all episodes being ...

of the 1993 Tour de France and also wore the polka dot jersey as leader of the

mountains classification The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing, Queen of the Mountains (QoM) is used. While the title may be given to the rider who achieves the highest p ...

for a day. He finished 5th place overall, which was the best Danish result in Tour history at the time, bettering former World Champion

Leif Mortensen Leif Mortensen (born 5 May 1946) is a former Danish professional road bicycle racer. He won a silver medal in the individual road race at the 1968 Summer Olympics while finishing fourth in the team time trial. In 1970–1975 he rode professiona ...

's 6th-place finish in the 1971 Tour de France. Riis was ill during the 1994 Tour de France but went on a break-away and then racing solo for the last 30 km of the day. With the sprinter teams chasing him, he placed first on the stage by just a few seconds. Riis finished 3rd at the 1995 Tour de France, the first Dane to reach the podium in Paris. For the 1996 season, Riis was brought on to the Telekom team as team captain. Following his excellent showing in the high climbs of the 1995 Tour, Riis was confident that he was capable of winning. He asked his new teammates to support him, and convinced them that if they worked for him he could bring the yellow jersey to Team Telekom. By the start of the Tour he was in superb condition, winning the Danish

Road Racing Road racing is a form of motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held either on a closed circuit or on a street circuit utilizing temporarily closed public roads. Originally, road races were held almost entirely on p ...

Championship the week before the prologue. As a result of snow on both the Col de l'Iseran and the Col du Galibier, the scheduled 190 km stage 9 from

Val-d'Isère Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère'') is a commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department ( Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region) in southeastern France. It lies from the border with Italy. It is on the border of the Vanoise Na ...

Sestriere Sestriere (/se'strjɛre/) ( oc, Sestrieras, pms, Ël Sestrier, french: Sestrières) is a ski resort in Piedmont, Italy, a ''comune'' (municipality) of the Metropolitan City of Turin. It is situated in Val Susa, from the French border. Its nam ...

in Italy was truncated and reduced to a 46 km sprint from Le-Monetier-les-Bains which was claimed by Riis, opening a 44-second gap over his teammate Jan Ullrich. By the Tour's end Riis had placed first in the General classification, with a lead of 1:41 over his young teammate Ullrich. In so doing he ended the string of five successive victories won by Tour great Miguel Indurain. The win by Riis was instrumental in turning Telekom from a second tier cycling team which struggled just to be invited into the 1995 Tour, into one of the biggest teams in road racing. It also had a huge positive effect on the development of cycling in both Denmark and Germany, massively increasing spectator interest and participation in the sport as well. In 1997, he placed first in the spring classic Amstel Gold Race, with a great effort, riding solo from a long way out, in pouring rain. Bjarne Riis was the favourite at the 1997 Tour de France, but instead it was his young German teammate Jan Ullrich, who won the overall competition, with Riis finishing 7th. On his way to the startup at stage 2 of the 1999 Tour de Suisse, Bjarne Riis hit the curb and crashed. The sustained injuries to his elbow and knee ultimately forced him to retire in the spring of 2000 at the age of 36.

Doping allegations

In the aftermath of the performance-enhancing drugs crisis in cycling following the 1998 Tour de France, Riis acquired the nickname of Mr. 60%, a suggestion that he has used doping. The 60% is an allusion to a high hematocrit (red blood cell) level, an indication of EPO usage. It has been published, but never proven, that Riis had a hematocrit level of 56% during one test in July 1995; well above typical natural levels, as well as his published reading of 41% in the offseason earlier that year. The earliest mention of the nickname can be traced to interviews with riders of Festina in 1998–2000, who apparently suggested that if they had been doped above 50%, then Riis must have been doped to at least 60%, since he was able to win the Tour de France in 1996 ahead of the Festina rider Richard Virenque: in Willy Voet's book Breaking the Chain, he mentions that Festina's team doctor would not allow EPO to be administered if a rider's hematocrit level was near 55%. Bjarne Riis never tested positive as a rider, though no EPO test existed at that time. Reports have noted, however, that police in Italy found evidence that Riis may have been among riders treated with EPO in 1994 and 1995 by medical researchers under Professor

Francesco Conconi Francesco Conconi (born 19 April 1935 in Como, Italy) is an Italian sports doctor and scientist, with disciples such as Michele Ferrari and Luigi Cecchini. Conconi is a professor at the University of Ferrara in Italy where he heads the ''Centro Stu ...

at the University of Ferrara, which resulted in prosecutions against Conconi and also involved Michele Ferrari. Files used in the court case apparently showed fluctuations in Riis' hematocrit from 41% to 56.3%. Speculations about Bjarne Riis's doping use was further fuelled by his ambiguous denials. When asked whether he used doping he repeatedly stated that "I have never tested positive," a statement that falls short of an outright denial.

Admission

At the end of April 2007, former Riis' soigneur Jeff d'Hont wrote a book about the doping practices of Riis and other riders during his time in the cycling business. On 21 May 2007, Riis' former Telekom teammate Bert Dietz admitted that he had used doping during his Telekom-time. This prompted other former teammates, Christian Henn and

Udo Bölts Udo Bölts (born 10 August 1966) is a retired German racing cyclist, the brother of Hartmut Bölts. Bölts confessed publicly in 2007 to having used EPO and growth hormones in 1996 and 1997. Biography Bölts was born in Heltersberg and began ...

, and two former team doctors, to admit their involvement in doping. On 24 May, three other teammates Rolf Aldag,

Erik Zabel Erik Zabel (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cycl ...

and Brian Holm confessed. Following this series of confessions, on 25 May 2007 Riis issued a press release that he also had made "mistakes" in the past, and in the following press conference confessed to taking EPO,

growth hormone Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in ...

and

cortisone Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug; it is not synthesized in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is converted by the action of the ...

for 6 years, from 1993 to 1998, including during his victory in the

. Riis said that he bought and injected the EPO himself, and team coach Walter Godefroot turned a blind eye to the drug use on the team. He denied a passage of Jeff d'Hont's book, where it is related that his hematocrit level was once tested by the team and registered 64%. He said if someone wanted to take his yellow jersey they could do so, it meant nothing to him. Riis was removed from the official record books of Tour de France, but in July 2008 he was written back into the books, along with additional notes about his use of doping. The reactions on Riis's admission have been mixed. Some critics have called him a cheater, and that the results he achieved in his career were worthless. Others have labelled him as a victim of the doping culture that was rampant in professional road cycling, and have insisted that he should not be scapegoated for a wider problem. In November 2010 Riis published a book about his career as a rider, emphasizing that doping throughout the time he had competed was not considered by the peloton as "cheat", but simply as a part of the "normal preparation" for a professional rider. He described he had started to dope only with corticosteroids in the 80s, and then as he previously had confessed upgraded his doping with EPO in 1993–98. Riis states the last time he doped as a rider was in July 1998. He states he quit during the 1998 Tour de France when he was nearly caught by the police. As part of the probe into the Festina doping scandal, police were on their way to search the rooms of his Telekom teammates. Riis offered the following comment on the episode: “In my room I didn’t have a choice. My vials of doping products had to disappear quickly. In just a few minutes I gathered all my doses of EPO and threw them down the toilet”.

Team manager

Bjarne Riis, director of Team CSC (2007 Tour of California, PROLOGUE)

Following his retirement, a new life opened up. Bjarne Riis had from the start been one of the people behind Danish cycling team , which became the first Danish team competing in the Tour de France. Following doping allegations and suspension of Home-Jack & Jones rider Marc Streel in 1999, Home withdrew its sponsorship. Bjarne Riis bought the majority of the team through its controlling company ''Professional Cycling Denmark'' (PCD), and he became the team manager. In 2001, the team changed sponsor to CSC/World Online, then CSC/Tiscali, and in the seasons 2003 to 2007 the American IT company CSC was the sole sponsor of Team CSC. In season 2008 CSC shared the sponsorship with the Danish bank Saxo Bank which as of season 2009 has been the sole team sponsor. The team later got the name Team Saxo Bank Sungard and is now known as Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank. Riis renamed PCD to ''Riis Cycling A/S'' in 2003. Before the 2005 season, Team CSC had financial problems and some of the riders were asked to take a wage cut. Riis used his own money to keep the team running throughout his first years as team manager, an expenditure he later vowed never to repeat when a new sponsor deal was signed during the 2005 Tour de France. As a team manager, his team has been involved in some doping cases, with no rider being convicted for using doping while on his team. However, in Tyler Hamilton's book, "The Secret Race," is described how Riis actively encouraged the use of doping on the CSC team. Also, Ivan Basso, who was Team CSC's 2006 Tour de France general classification contender was removed from the team prior to the beginning of the Tour according to the UCI ProTour rules due to his possible involvement in the

Operación Puerto doping case Operación Puerto (''Operation Mountain Pass'') is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved s ...

, an involvement confirmed by Basso himself in April 2007. Basso's contract with Team CSC has since ended. The story of team CSC during the 2004 Tour de France has been captured in a documentary titled "Overcoming". His best results as a manager in

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tu ...

s were winning the 2006 Giro d'Italia with Ivan Basso, the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

and 2010 Tour de France with Carlos Sastre and Andy Schleck respectively, and the

2012 Vuelta a España The 2012 Vuelta a España started on 18 August 2012 and was the 67th edition of the race. The race began in Pamplona with a team time trial and ended on 9 September, as traditional, in Madrid. The 2012 edition saw the return of the Bola del Mund ...

with

Alberto Contador Alberto Contador Velasco (; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish former Road bicycle racing, professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice (2007 Tour de France, 2007, 2009 Tour de France ...

. In December 2013 it was confirmed that team sponsor Oleg Tinkov had bought the team from Riis, for a reported sum of approximately €6 million, with Riis continuing as team manager on a three-year deal worth €1 million per year. Tinkov had previously criticised Riis and Contador for their performances during 2013 via social media. In March 2015 the team confirmed that Riis had been removed from active duty due to differences between Riis and Tinkov. Media reports had initially indicated that Riis had been suspended when he did not appear at the 2015 Milan–San Remo as planned, and that this was due to a disappointing start to the season for the team. On 29 March, it was announced that Riis had been released by the team. News reports cited the "tumultuous relationship" and "difference in character" between Riis and Tinkov as the reason for Riis's departure. In July 2016 Riis and former Saxo Bank CEO Lars Seier announced that they had taken over the Danish

UCI Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world gove ...

team and renamed it , with the intention of it functioning as the development team for a planned

. In January 2020 Riis was appointed as manager of the NTT_Pro_Cycling team.

Career achievements

Major results

;1984 : 2nd Overall Flèche du Sud ::1st Stages 1 & 2 ;1986 : 5th

Grand Prix de Wallonie The Grand Prix de Wallonie is an annual road bicycle race held annually in Wallonia, Belgium. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It has a profile similar to the Ardennes classics The Ardennes classics a ...

;1988 : 8th

;1989 : 1st Stage 9 Giro d'Italia : 1st Stage 2 Tour de l'Avenir : 1st Stage 2 ( TTT)

: 2nd

Grand Prix de la Libération The Grand Prix de la Libération was an annual road cycling race in the Netherlands that took place in the form of a team time trial from 1988 until 1991. It was on the calendar of the UCI Road World Cup The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long ...

;1990 : Tour de l'Avenir ::1st Stages 7 & 9 : 6th Overall Tour de Luxembourg : 10th Grand Prix d'Isbergues ;1991 : 6th

Road race Road racing, road race of road racer may refer to: * Road racing in motorsport * Road running on foot * Road bicycle racing * ''Road Race'', initial name of 1976 arcade game ''Fonz'' (video game) * Roadracers (1994 film) * Roadracers (1959 fi ...

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and a mixed team relay. Events ...

;1992 : 1st MaillotDinamarca

, National Road Championships : 4th Paris–Brussels : 8th Giro della Romagna ;1993 : 1st Stage 7 Giro d'Italia : 5th Overall

::1st Stage 7 : 9th

: 9th

Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden Omloop van de Vlaamse Scheldeboorden is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in September in the municipality of Kruibeke, Belgium. Since 2005, the race is organized as a 1.1 1.1 may refer to: * 1.1.1.1, a Domain Name System service * ...

: 9th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx ;1994 : 1st Stage 13

: 2nd GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano : 5th Züri-Metzgete : 6th Overall Ronde van Nederland : 6th Giro del Veneto : 6th

Milano–Vignola The Milano–Vignola was a professional road bicycle race held annually in the Province of Modena, Italy. The last edition took place in 1996, becoming the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli in 1997. Winners ...

: 7th Giro di Lombardia : 7th Giro dell'Emilia : 7th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx : 9th

;1995 : 1st MaillotDinamarca

, National Road Championships : 1st jersey yellow

Overall Danmark Rundt ::1st Stage 3b (

ITT ITT may refer to: Communication * Infantry-Tank Telephone, a device allowing infantrymen to speak to the occupants of armoured vehicles. Mathematics *Intuitionistic type theory, other name of Martin-Löf Type Theory *Intensional type theory B ...

) : 2nd

Circuit de l'Aulne Boucles de l'Aulne is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in May or June around Châteaulin, in the region of Brittany, France. Since 2006, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. It was previously known as Gran ...

: 3rd Overall

::1st Stage 3 ( TTT) : 5th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx ;1996 : National Road Championships ::1st MaillotDinamarca

::1st

Time trial In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

: 1st

Overall

::1st Stages 9 & 16 : 1st Coppa Sabatini : 1st GP Herning : 2nd Grand Prix des Nations : 3rd Overall Danmark Rundt : 3rd Grand Prix of Aargau Canton : 3rd Giro dell'Emilia : 3rd Telekom Grand Prix (with Jan Ullrich) : 4th Rund um den Henninger-Turm : 5th Overall Grand Prix du Midi Libre : 6th Classique des Alpes : 9th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx : 10th

;1997 : 1st Amstel Gold Race : 1st GP Herning : 1st Colliers Classic : 1st Stage 4a Grand Prix Guillaume Tell : 2nd

, National Road Championships : 2nd Rund um den Henninger-Turm : 4th Overall Danmark Rundt : 5th Overall

Euskal Bizikleta Euskal Bizikleta (Spanish: ''Bicicleta Vasca'', English: ''Basque Bicycle'') was an annual road cycling stage race held in the Basque Country in June. From 2005 to 2008, the race was organized as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. In 2009, it was ...

: 7th Overall

: 7th Grand Prix of Aargau Canton : 10th

;1998 : 1st GP Herning : 1st Stage 5

: 5th Overall Peace Race

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

External links

Riis Cycling

Riijs' role in cycling
*
Bjarne Riis' profile on Cycling Base
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riis, Bjarne Danish male cyclists Tour de France winners Danish Tour de France stage winners Danish sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in cycling Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Denmark Danish Giro d'Italia stage winners 1964 births Living people Danmark Rundt winners People from Herning Municipality Tinkoff (cycling team) Sportspeople from the Central Denmark Region