Cycling-Saxo Bank owner, former Tour winner Riis sponsor Danish team

COPENHAGEN, July 22 (Reuters) - Former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis and Lars Seier Christensen, co-owner of online forex brokerage Saxo Bank, are joining forces to sponsor a Danish cycling team, they said in a statement on Friday. They will take over the sponsorship of Team Trefor, which will be renamed Team Virtu Pro-Veloconcept. The team will participate in their first race under the new name at next week's Tour of Denmark, PostNord Danmark Rundt. "The team will act as a development team to a future World Tour performing at the world's highest (level)," they said. Riis and Christensen will take part in the overall planning of the future strategy but will not be involved in the daily management and operations of the team. Riis, 52, won the Tour in 1996 and was feted as the greatest Danish cyclist of the modern era, but subsequently admitted to doping during his career, including in 1996. Riis has been out of the sport since leaving his post as manager of Team Saxo-Tinkoff in March 2015 following the breakdown of his relationship with team owner Oleg Tinkov. Christensen was one of two founders of Copenhagen-based Saxo Bank and acted as its chief executive until last year. The bank traded $10.5 billion worth of currencies daily in 2015. (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Ed Osmond)