One day after announcing the signing of Jesper Hansen, Team Saxo-Tinkoff have continued their recruitment of young neo-pros. Today the team has made official the signings of Pawel Poljanski and Michael Kolar.

With the team having a reduced budget due to the loss of Tinkoff Bank as a sponsor, Team Saxo-Tinkoff has been less active than usual on the transfer market. Until now the team has only signed Danish neo-professionals Michael Valgren and Jesper Hansen, and today the team emphasised its focus on the youth by adding Pawel Poljanski and Michael Kolar who will both turn professional on the Danish team.

Poljanski is a 23-year-old Pole who rode as a stagiaire for the team this autumn. While he failed to make any great results, he worked hard as a domestique and showed great results in testing. He won the Polish U23 championships in 2012.

Kolar is a 20-year-old Slovakian who has proved to be a fast sprinter by winning four UCI races this year. He has been part of the continental Dukla Trencin-Trek team in 2013.

"We believe both Pawel and Michael have the potential to become great bike riders, and by adding them we now have a solid and interesting group of talents, both when it comes to one day races and stage races and skills in all terrains," team owner Bjarne Riis says.

"As a stagiaire Pawel has shown he is a versatile rider, who can climb," he added. "He has done some great races for the team and on top of that he had some fantastic results in the testing, we did with him. So we feel he deserved a contract for the years to come.

"Michael has not yet made a name for himself in cycling, but he certainly has the potential to do so, if he can continue his development," Riis said. "He is still very young, but he is extremely fast and possesses the skills to become a great sprinter."

The two young riders look forward to joining the team and get the new season underway.

"It has been great to be part of Team Saxo-Tinkoff this autumn, so it goes without saying that I'm very excited about signing with the team, and I'm really looking forward to getting the new season started," Poljanski said. "This is a fantastic opportunity for me, and also a challenge that will require tons of hard work. But I feel I'm ready for this, and I will do my very best to meet the team's expectations."

"It has always been a dream of mine to become a pro bike rider," Kolar said. "When you get this kind of chance from one of the best teams in the world, it really is an easy choice, and I'm very grateful for this opportunity. I'm well aware that it will take a lot of hard work to adapt to racing at World Tour-level, but I have great confidence in myself, and I hope to be able to jump into the pro peloton as fast as possible."

Team Saxo-Tinkoff has now signed four new riders for the coming season. Jonas Aaen (Riwal), Jonathan Cantwell (Drapac), Mads Christensen (Cult), Anders Lund (retires), Benjamin Noval (retires) and Bruno Pires (??) will all leave the team.