The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, which became the focus of pro-Palestinian protests at road races this season, announced Thursday that it is changing its name to the \u201cNSN Cycling Team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team said it will now be Swiss-registered and based in Barcelona and Girona, Catalonia.<\/p>\n
Both its WorldTour and development squads will have two principal sponsors.<\/p>\n
Andres Iniesta\u2019s NSN Joins Forces With Stoneweg<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international sports and entertainment company NSN (Never Say Never) and Stoneweg, a global investment platform based in Geneva, Switzerland, have entered into a joint venture in professional road cycling to take over the WorldTour and Development team structure ahead of the 2026 season,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
In August and September, several stages of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a were curtailed or interrupted by protesters. Earlier this month, Canadian group Premier Tech announced it was withdrawing from the team, deeming it \u201cunsustainable\u201d to continue sponsorship.<\/p>\n
After the Vuelta, Premier Tech called for the team to change its name and adopt a new identity and brand image. The team agreed to move away from its \u201cIsraeli identity,\u201d but Premier Tech \u2014 which manufactures fertilizer and other agricultural products \u2014 decided to withdraw completely.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NSN Expands Into Cycling With Global Ambition<\/p>\n
NSN is a seven-year-old Barcelona-based company that lists former Barcelona and Spain star Andres Iniesta among its 12 founders.<\/p>\n
NSN\u2019s diverse activities include owning Danish second-division club Helsingor and operating as a promoter and content provider in football, music, and exhibitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a huge challenge for NSN to immerse ourselves in the world of cycling, a sport with global reach,\u201d NSN president Joel Borras said in the press release. \u201cIt represents a fantastic opportunity to explore new ways of communicating and connecting with a sport that aligns with the values of our company.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team said it will hold a training camp next week and \u201cwill unveil its new look and race program in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team, which became the focus of pro-Palestinian protests at road races this season, announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-298241","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\/298241","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=298241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}