Bjarne Riis, who has been named team manager of South African WorldTour team NTT Pro Cycling since the start of the season, told Danish media that although he is not yet part owner of the team, that is "still the intention" and that he and team principal Doug Ryder said he hoped to be able to complete the deal soon.

It was widely believed that Riis had become the team's owner after it was announced in January that he was the new director of NTT Pro Cycling, but in April it was revealed that he and Rider had not finalized a contract.

"We still have to figure out exactly which direction the team is headed," Riis said. Now we are hoping to have a meeting so we can get everything in order."

Riis won the 1996 Tour de France ahead of Telekom teammate Jan Ullrich and Festina's Richard Virenque, but in 2007 the Dane admitted to doping for much of his career, including during the 1996 Tour.

Between his retirement in early 2000 and the start of the 2015 season, Ries was the director of the cycling team perhaps best known as CSC, during which time he had various other title sponsors, including Saxo Bank and Tinkoff. 2013, he sold the team to Tinkoff Bank owner Oleg Tinkoff, but continued to direct the team until his dismissal in the spring of 2015.

In 2016, Riis and former Saxo Bank CEO Lars Seier Christensen took over the Danish men's UCI Continental team Team TreFor and the women's team BMS BIRN and later, after the arrival of further investment from Jan Beck Andersen, both teams renamed Team Virtu, and the men's team was renamed Team Waoo again in 2018.

Both teams closed after the 2019 season, with Riis moving to NTT.

"We're still in the process of closing Virtue, so we just need to figure everything out," he said of the pending NTT deal.

"But nothing has changed in terms of what we want to do or what Doug wants to do.

Asked by Ekstra Bladet if Riis and his business partners Christensen and Andersen still intend to buy a piece of the team from Ryder, Riis replied: "We do.