Bjarne Riis

Bjarne Lykkegård Riis (Danish pronunciation: [ˈpjɑːnə ˈʁiˀs]), nicknamed The Eagle from Herning (Danish: Ørnen fra Herning), is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who won the 1996 Tour de France, then later admitted he illegally doped 1993 - 1998. For many years he was the owner and later manager of the Oleg Tinkov associated Russian UCI WorldTeam Tinkoff–Saxo. 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 doped with banned substances between 1993 and 1998 including when he placed first in the Tour de France, and he was no longer considered the winner by the Tour's organizers. In July 2008, the Tour reconfirmed his 1996 victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences. This was done after the UCI claimed their was a 10 year statute of limitations (even though when Lance Armstrong was later stripped of his Tour titles, some of them were more than 10 years prior). In 2025, Riis said in an interview he had no regrets that he had cheated by doping, supposedly as with no penalty imposed and no stripping of his title, the records show he 'won' the Tour de France, admitted it and got away with it.