{"id":246971,"date":"2025-10-28T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246971\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:22:07","slug":"israel-on-tour-de-france-start-we-brought-the-giro-here-anything-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246971\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel on Tour de France start: \u2018We brought the Giro here \u2014 anything is possible\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s<\/a> dream of hosting the Tour de France\u2019s Grand D\u00e9part is alive \u2014 at least in the minds of Dafna Lang, president of the Israeli Cycling Federation, and Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you that we\u2019re applying or planning to host it, but we never stop dreaming,\u201d Lang told L\u2019\u00c9quipe<\/a>. \u201cI can\u2019t speak for Sylvan Adams<\/a>, but I believe once we have lasting peace, we\u2019ll realize many big projects by welcoming the world. We\u2019re very optimistic \u2014 we brought the Giro here already, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Tours in Israel<\/p>\n

Israel previously hosted the opening of the 2018 Giro d\u2019Italia, the first Grand Tour ever to start outside Europe. That race began with a time trial in Jerusalem and included three stages across the country \u2014 a project largely driven by Adams.<\/p>\n

Lang said she has not yet discussed the idea with UCI president David Lappartient, though Adams told La Voix S\u00e9pharade<\/a> in 2024 that he had been \u201cin discussion with Tour de France organizers\u201d to follow the Giro\u2019s example.<\/p>\n

Israeli-Canadian Sylvan Adams steps back as Israel-Premier Tech prepares for rebrand<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Amaury Sport Organization, which owns both the Tour and L\u2019\u00c9quipe, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Any Israeli bid would depend on the long-term success of the October 9 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas \u2014 the first step in the U.S.-brokered peace plan.<\/p>\n

The State of Israel and the Gaza conflict have factored largely in pro cycling in 2025, especially toward the later part of the season. Israel\u2013Premier Tech, a team composed largely of Canadians and riders from the Americas, but with the State of Israel and the Star of David on the team jersey, created just a bit of a kerfuffle.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the team was registered in Israel, with one of the co-owners, Adams, calling himself a self-proclaimed ambassador of the country. He was also praised publicly by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Is Canada about to field its first Tour de France team?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speculation is the team may register elsewhere for 2026 as a WorldTour team \u2014 the team has said Israel will not be its home \u2014 so perhaps Canada will have a Tour de France team. But in a weird way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s dream of hosting the Tour de France\u2019s Grand D\u00e9part is alive \u2014 at least in the minds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,59441,146634,146635,85,86633],"class_list":{"0":"post-246971","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-derek-gee","12":"tag-epic-israel","13":"tag-hamas-israel-war","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sylvan-adams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246971","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=246971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}