Team Saxo Bank

Team Saxo Bank

Team Saxo-Tinkoff (UCI Team Code: TST) is a professional cycling team from Denmark. It competes in the UCI ProTour. The team is owned and managed by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, under the management of his company Riis Cycling. The sponsors are Saxo Bank, a Danish investment bank, and the Russian Tinkoff Bank, a credit systems company.

Founded for 1998 Team home – Jack & Jones, the team started in cycling's second division. In 2000 it moved into the 'top division, now known as the UCI ProTour, previously as the 1st Division. Since 2000, under differing sponsor names (Memory Card-Jack & Jones and CSC-Tiscali), the team rode the Tour de France. It has won stages in all three Grand Tours and won overall in all of them too. In the 2008 Tour de France, Carlos Sastre won the general classification, Andy Schleck won the young rider classification, and the team won the overall team classification, and Ivan Basso won the 2006 Giro d'Italia, as well as finishing third and second in the 2004 and 2005 Tour de France. In addition, the team has won many major classics, including 6 Monuments.

The team won the UCI ProTour's team classification each year from 2005 through 2007, and the team classification in the 2010 UCI World Ranking. In 2011, the team added SunGard as secondary sponsor, and was known as Team Saxo Bank-SunGard. On 16 November 2011 it was announced that SunGard would no longer be a title sponsor after 2011. On 25 June 2012 it was announced that the Russian Tinkoff Bank would join the team as co-sponsors for the rest of the 2012 season and through to the end of 2013. Saxo Bank also renewed their sponsorship through 2013, with the team's name thus becoming Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank.