{"id":195243,"date":"2025-10-07T11:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T11:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195243\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T11:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T11:13:13","slug":"cycling-team-at-centre-of-pro-palestine-protests-to-ditch-israeli-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195243\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling team at centre of pro-Palestine protests to ditch Israeli identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cycling team at the centre of repeated protests during this year\u2019s La Vuelta will change their name for next season in an attempt to move away from their \u201cIsraeli identity\u201d. <\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech will \u201crename and rebrand\u201d for next season, while the owner Sylvan Adams, an Israeli-Canadian businessman, will step back from his day-to-day role. Three stages of this year\u2019s Vuelta were neutralised due to pro-Palestinian protests and the technical director of the race urged Israel-Premier Tech to withdraw<\/a> from the grand tour. <\/p>\n

The team were uninvited from the Giro dell\u2019Emilia this month, which finished in Bologna last weekend, amid fears of similar protests.<\/p>\n

\"Cyclists<\/p>\n

Sponsors were unhappy with the attention on the team<\/p>\n

MIGUEL OSES\/AP<\/p>\n

Their sponsors \u2014 including the British bike manufacturer Factor \u2014 were unhappy with the attention. \u201cWithout a name change, without a flag change, [Factor] won\u2019t continue,\u201d Factor told CyclingNews. <\/p>\n

The details of the new team have not been announced. \u201cWith steadfast commitment to our riders, staff, and valued partners, the decision has been made to rename and rebrand the team, moving away from its current Israeli identity,\u201d the team said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn sport, progress often requires sacrifice, and this step is essential to securing the future of the team. Looking ahead to the 2026 season, Sylvan Adams has chosen to step back from his day-to-day involvement and will no longer speak on behalf of the team, instead focusing on his role as President of the World Jewish Congress, Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September La Vuelta was disrupted on multiple occasions as pro-Palestine activists launched protests against the team\u2019s participation. Protesters stormed the route on multiple stages, getting in the riders\u2019 way, halting races and causing crashes. <\/p>\n

\"Sylvan<\/p>\n

Adams, the team\u2019s owner, will step back from day-to-day involvement<\/p>\n

JACK GUEZ\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Stage 11 in the Basque city of Bilbao was cut short due to hundreds of protesters pushing down barriers at the finish line, forcing armed police to intervene. No winner was announced that day, with Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 memorably passing under a banner as activists tried to stop the lead group. Again on stage 16 the day was cut short as activists protested near the finish line. <\/p>\n

During the final stage into Madrid<\/a> the peloton only managed 51km of the 108km before it was deemed unsafe to continue. No stage winner was awarded, and the podium celebrations were unable to go ahead with the top-three carrying out an improvised podium atop coolers in a hotel car park.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting us in danger isn\u2019t going to help your cause, that simply isn\u2019t going to help what they\u2019re protesting for,\u201d Pidcock, 26, said. \u201cEveryone has the right to protest for whatever they want but putting us in danger is not the way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although IPT has no official affiliation with Israel, Adams has been a vocal supporter of Israel during its war in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Despite La Vuelta organisers and even the Spanish government calling for the team to abandon the race, Israel-Premier Tech took a firm line, saying in a statement that the team was \u201ccommitted to racing on at La Vuelta. Any other course of action sets a dangerous precedent in the sport of cycling not only for Israel-Premier Tech, but for all teams.\u201d However, they removed the word \u201cIsrael\u201d from their team jerseys for the remainder of the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cycling team at the centre of repeated protests during this year\u2019s La Vuelta will change their name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}