{"id":415139,"date":"2026-01-15T18:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415139\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:03:12","slug":"i-didnt-want-to-use-gaza-as-a-scapegoat-to-get-out-of-my-contract-derek-gee-wests-e30-million-legal-dispute-over-israel-premier-tech-exit-resolved-as-canadian-sta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/415139\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI didn\u2019t want to use Gaza as a scapegoat to get out of my contract\u201d: Derek Gee-West\u2019s \u20ac30 million legal dispute over Israel-Premier Tech exit resolved, as Canadian star says controversy \u201cbest left in the past\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lidl-Trek\u2019s latest signing Derek Gee-West has confirmed that his \u20ac30 million legal dispute with NSN Cycling, formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech, has been resolved, after claiming in the Spanish press that he feared \u201cretirement was a real possibility\u201d during the protracted saga.<\/p>\n

However, the Canadian stage racer has since claimed that there were a \u201cwhole bunch of reasons\u201d behind his acrimonious departure from the scandal-laden squad, insisting that the dispute is \u201cbest left in the past\u201d as he aims to return to racing, and target a top result at the Giro d\u2019Italia, with new team Lidl-Trek.<\/p>\n

Gee-West, who finished fourth overall at last year\u2019s Giro, hasn\u2019t raced since the Canadian national championships last June, after he issued a \u201cnotice of termination\u201d to Israel-Premier Tech in August<\/a>, despite the 28-year-old having signed a five-year extension in 2023 tying him to the squad until the end of 2028.<\/p>\n

Gee-West later responded by confirming that he had unilaterally terminated his contract and claiming that \u201ccertain issues\u201d had made his \u201ccontinuation at the team untenable\u201d.<\/p>\n

And in October he expanded on his reasons for attempting to rip up his contract early, citing an \u201cirreparable relationship\u201d <\/a>with the team and \u201cserious concerns\u201d about continuing racing in the squad\u2019s colours, from both a safety and \u201cpersonal-belief standpoint that weighed heavily on my conscience\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Canadian stage racer also claimed that he was facing a \u20ac30 million damages claim from Israel-Premier Tech for, in his words, \u201cdoing nothing more than exercising my fundamental rights as a professional and a person\u201d, the case prompting Gee-West to call on the UCI\u2019s Arbitration Board to intervene.<\/p>\n

\"DerekDerek Gee, stage 11, 2024 Tour de France (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

A month later, Israel-Premier Tech, founded by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, announced that it was rebranding as NSN Cycling and will race the 2026 campaign under a Swiss licence and with a Spanish identity<\/a>, backed by international sports and entertainment company Never Say Never (NSN) and global investment platform Stoneweg.<\/p>\n

This rebranding exercise proved the culmination of months of turbulence for the formerly Israeli-registered squad, which saw them come under mounting pressure from race organisers, riders, and sponsors<\/a> (with both title sponsor Premier Tech<\/a> and bike brand Factor stepping away from the team<\/a>), as the protests against the squad\u2019s ongoing involvement in cycling\u2019s biggest races, amid the war in Gaza, escalated.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0\u201cWhat did we have to do with it? We were a cycling team\u201d: Israel-Premier Tech \u201clost out for political reasons\u201d, claims sports director, after Palestine protests which painted riders and staff as \u201cindecent\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the uncertainty surrounding Gee-West\u2019s own future within the sport lingered on throughout the winter, with the Ineos Grenadiers reported to among the Canadian\u2019s suitors, until it was confirmed in early January that he had signed a three-year deal with Lidl-Trek.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais<\/a> on Tuesday, Gee-West admitted that the legal wrangling with Israel-Premier Tech had left him fearing for his career, while explaining why he didn\u2019t explicitly link his departure from the team to Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve experienced some truly dark days, with moments when I thought that, unfortunately, retirement was a very real possibility, especially given the enormous sum of money involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, I didn\u2019t want to use what was happening in the Gaza Strip as a scapegoat to get out of my contract. I didn’t think it was fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DerekDerek Gee and Alex Baudin, stage 19, 2023 Giro d\u2019Italia (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

However, speaking to reporters during an online press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Gee-West played down the potential impact of the dispute on his career \u2013 though he did confirm that the case has now been resolved by the UCI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all settled and done, there are no remnants from that left over,\u201d he said, before doing his best to avoid expanding on his motivations for leaving Israel-Premier Tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a whole bunch of reasons, but to be honest, I just want to leave that in the past, and it\u2019s not something that I want to get into,\u201d he continued. \u201cOut of respect for all the parties involved, it\u2019s best left in the past for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by Domestique\u2019s Barry Ryan<\/a> about whether he worried that he would end up missing this season if the legal dispute dragged on, Gee-West said: \u201cI never thought that I\u2019d have to sit out the whole year. I definitely thought that at some points\u2026 I wasn\u2019t confident that it was going to be resolved by the end of the season, but I\u2019m eternally grateful that it was, especially with the timing of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I didn\u2019t miss anything on the build-up to 2026. So to be honest, it was a lot of uncertainty, but I think that the timing was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Former Israel-Premier Tech rider Derek Gee facing \u20ac30 million damages claim after terminating contract with team on \u201csafety and personal belief\u201d grounds<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting, and obviously it was very, very tough, incredibly, but it\u2019s also the kind of thing that, because it\u2019s your everyday, it\u2019s all-consuming and then as soon as you arrive at team camp and you\u2019re on a new team, it really leaves you pretty quickly,\u201d he told Daniel Benson<\/a> when asked about the uncertainty he faced over the past five months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to exaggerate and say it was fine. It was a very, very tough period, but it\u2019s not something that\u2019s stuck with me, and it\u2019s not something that\u2019s lingered. I\u2019m fresh, remotivated, and ready to get back into the peloton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DerekDerek Gee, stage 20, 2025 Giro d\u2019Italia (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Gee-West began his professional career with UCI ProTeam Israel-Premier Tech in 2023, stepping up from its Israel Cycling Academy development squad at the age of 25, after focusing the bulk of his early career on the track.<\/p>\n

After a breakthrough ride at the 2023 Giro d\u2019Italia, where he finished second on four stages, he soon established himself as one of the team\u2019s most successful riders.<\/p>\n

He won a stage at the 2024 Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 before finishing ninth at his debut Tour de France later that summer. In 2025, he won a stage and the overall at O Gran Cami\u00f1o in Spain and finished fourth overall at the Giro, his best grand tour GC performance to date, with his last race coming in June at the Canadian national road race championships, which he won.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old is set to lead his new squad Lidl-Trek at this year\u2019s Giro, where he hopes to continue his meteoric, if slightly belated and disrupted, rise through the ranks by targeting a podium place in Rome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lidl-Trek\u2019s latest signing Derek Gee-West has confirmed that his \u20ac30 million legal dispute with NSN Cycling, formerly known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-415139","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\/415139","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=415139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}