On Tuesday Bjarne Riis arrived at the Tour of Oman to follow and support his Team Saxo-Tinkoff squad and team leader Alberto Contador in their attempts to secure overall victory in the six-day stage race.

Riis has a troublesome history as a rider and then as a team manager/owner, which is closely entwined with the last two decades of professional cycling and also with the current Operacion Puerto trial and any possible “Truth and Reconciliation Process” managed by the UCI.

Riis won the 1996 Tour de France but then surrendered his victory after confessing to doping following a decade of numerous accusations and continuous denials of any wrongdoing. Since Riis began as a team manager, his teams have been some of the most effectively and vigilantly managed set-ups in the history of the sport and now he is back in close collaboration with Contador as the Spanish rider prepares to have a go at another Tour de France.

However, a seemingly ever-growing number of Riis' high-profile riders have become caught up in doping scandals in recent years and widespread suspicion lingers that the majority of them may have benefitted from illegal assistance from Dr. Fuentes.

The most recent evidence to surface from Operacion Puerto and published by Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport implicates Ivan Basso, claiming that the Italian underwent blood transfusions and used other banned substances such as growth hormone thanks to Fuentes, while working closely with Riis.

Tyler Hamilton, Alberto Contador, Fränk Schleck, Jörg Jaksche, Michele Bartoli, Dave Zabriskie, and Christian Vande Velde all figure on the long and lamentable list of riders who have all either faced doping suspensions or admitted to doping while riding under Riis’s management.

Riis has limited his statements to denying that he knows Fuentes and furthermore claims that he has never met him. Yet, the links between cycling's most diabolic and reviled doctor and the stone-faced, taciturn Dane are becoming ever more noticeable. As a consequence, many observers believe that Riis’ position in the sport is nigh on unsustainable.

Never a great communicator, Riis seldom has time for the media nowadays, but he did hint, in an interview of sorts to Cyclingnews.com, that he does have regrets about his past. However, at least for the time being, he remains disinclined to play any active role in finding a solution to the problems currently infesting the world of professional cycling.

"I think we all have regrets…" he said before the beginning of stage two of the Tour of Oman, combining a few words with long silences in his usual taciturn style.

"I don’t want to say anything about Basso or anything else. I haven’t seen Gazzetta dello Sport. It's not the moment for me to talk about all that because there's a process going on. So I don't feel any need to comment on it."

In an unusual and unprecedented move, Riis did not rule out participating in the expected “Truth and Reconciliation Process” but ever mindful of the inherent dangers for his personal future in the sport and perhaps that of his team, Riis requires further information on the conditions of the process before committing himself.

"I think everybody has an interest to be part of the solution if it’s a fair and healthy solution. Everybody has an interest in the right solution," he said.