De Jongh and Feltrin take the reins at Tinkoff-Saxo

Tinkoff-Saxo has announced its anticipated management reshuffle after the contentious departure of former boss, Bjarne Riis.

The team of two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan said on Friday that Steven de Jongh and Stefano Feltrin will share a workload once shouldered by Riis.

The team owned by Russian millionaire Oleg Tinkov officially fired Dane Riis last weekend.

De Jongh will assume a position as head of the team's sport directors and will be tasked with strategic and long-term planning plus its race programme. Feltrin will take responsibility for sports operations.

"We will not rush and turn everything upside down right now. That would not be wise at this stage," de Jongh said.

"We will stick to the programme we have and thoroughly assess our strengths and weaknesses. We will keep what works and try to improve what doesn't.

"Our big goals for this season are the Giro-Tour double for Alberto Contador and the Classics for Peter Sagan. Alberto's preparation for this demanding goal is going exactly as planned. I have been in charge of Alberto for the last year and I will continue to do so this season as well."

According to Feltrin this new structure reflects the vision team owner Oleg Tinkov has of the sport of cycling and the need to adapt to modern challenges.

"In order to remain at the top of the game, we need to constantly improve," he said. "We simply cannot stand still and see our competition reach our level.

"For that reason, we are implementing a management structure where the notion of Team Manager doesn't exist. As Oleg Tinkov stated, that was the old way of thinking and it is no longer viable."