Lars Seier Christensen has reiterated that Saxo Bank will honour their current deal with Tinkoff as a co-sponsor of Oleg Tinkov's team but the Danish bank's CEO has insisted that no negotiations over a contract extension will take place at this time.
Seier Christensen was set to visit the riders and staff on Sunday morning, ahead of the Tour of Flanders but he will find a very different squad to the one he first helped build eight years ago, with former boss Bjarne Riis dismissed from his duties and a new management structure in place courtesy of Tinkov's recent restructure.
Last month Riis was suspended by Tinkov, with his contract terminated by mutual consent days ago. Seier Christensen had tried to broker a form of mediation between his long-term ally and Tinkov but found that neither party were willing to discuss terms with their conscious uncoupling confirmed in the lead up to the Tour of Flanders.
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"Now it's an interesting opportunity to touch base with the riders and see how they're doing. I want to show my support and involvement with the team and that we're sponsors that we take an interest with the team," Seier Christensen told Cyclingnews.
"I think now is a really important time to underline that support. For me it's also interesting to get an impression about what they think. I've never really interfered in strategy but I think it's interesting to hear what the atmosphere is like on the team and how these changes are being perceived by them."
Seier Christensen, Tinkov and riders including Peter Sagan have all been on a PR warpath since Riis' removal - a firing that one Danish journalist told Cyclingnews was more a humiliation than anything – with carefully prepared statements placed on social media. Interestingly the team chose to forgo their usual pre-Tour of Flanders press conference, perhaps in a move to displace an opportunity for the media to ask questions but Seier Christensen stated, at least, that the changes in management and loss of Riis should not distract the riders from their primary target of winning races, however for a team that's won only twice all season that's easier said than done.
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