Bjarne Riis suspended

Denmark’s Bjarne Riis has been suspended from his position as team manager at the Tinkoff-Saxo team, which includes two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan.

Team members claim the club’s billionaire Russian owner Oleg Tinkov blames the former cyclist for poor results, but a statement from the team insisted he “was not suspended from his active role because of lack of results nor for financial issues”.

According to reports, Riis and Tinkoff had been at odds in recent weeks with the 50-year-old not attending the Milan-San Remo race.

The former Tour de France winner has been linked to an on-going investigation into historical doping practices, though it is unclear whether this has any bearing on his suspension.