{"id":29778,"date":"2025-07-28T16:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/29778\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T16:31:10","slug":"its-better-to-follow-your-morals-former-israel-premier-tech-rider-relieved-to-no-longer-represent-team-urges-cycling-world-to-show-awareness-of-whats-going-on-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/29778\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s better to follow your morals”: Former Israel-Premier Tech rider “relieved” to no longer represent team, urges cycling world “to show awareness of what’s going on in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his final season as a professional rider, Alessandro De Marchi says he is “happy and relieved” to no longer represent Israel-Premier Tech, the Italian saying “it’s better to follow your morals” and urging “real action” from the UCI\u00a0“to position the cycling world on the right side and to show awareness of what’s going on in Gaza”.<\/p>\n

The quotes come from an in-depth interview by cycling journalist Chris Marshall-Bell published in yesterday’s edition of The Observer<\/a>. De Marchi, who is retiring at the end of the season, rode for the Israel-branded team in 2021 and 2022 (and wore the maglia rosa while representing them) but says he would not\u00a0now and that “back then I really understood very little about Israel”.<\/p>\n

\"AlessandroAlessandro De Marchi wears the maglia rosa riding for Israel-Premier Tech (credit: Cov Vos\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

While De Marchi was not racing for his current team Jayco AlUla at the Tour de France, the Italian saw the protest\u00a0at the end of stage 11 in Toulouse, an Extinction Rebellion demonstrator running onto the finish straight\u00a0wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’.<\/p>\n

Speaking since the protest, De Marchi said: “We need to see real action from our governing body to position the cycling world on the right side and to show awareness of what’s going on in Gaza.\u00a0We have to show that as a cycling world we care about human rights and international law violations.”<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech are\u00a0not a state-owned team, although the Observer piece notes they have received a “small amount from Israel’s ministry for tourism”. However, through funding by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, the team has been a regular sight in professional cycling for the best part of a decade now and have been represented\u00a0at all\u00a0of the world’s biggest races, by riders such as Chris Froome and 2023 Tour de France stage winner Michael Woods.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Chris Froome appears in official Israel video promoting cycling event to support Gaza hostages<\/a><\/p>\n

The team has regularly faced minor protests at races, such as during last year’s Tour of Britain<\/a>, and\u00a0insisted they “continue to race proudly as Israel-Premier Tech” despite removing the Israel name from its team vehicles and riders’ training kits as a “precautionary measure”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Owner and funder Adams, who attended Donald Trump’s inauguration and encouraged US attacks on Iran in June, has called the team “ambassadors” for Israel and a means of promoting a “more realistic vision” of modern Israel.<\/p>\n

“I would have really struggled to be there now,” De Marchi said. “I won’t criticise anyone riding there because everyone is free to decide, but right now I wouldn’t sign a contract with Israel. I wouldn’t be able to manage the feelings I have, to be able to be involved in something like that.<\/p>\n

\"AlessandroAlessandro De Marchi (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

“At the time [in 2021] they gave me a chance to keep riding at the top level, they gave me a good contract and salary, and I was looking at the house I had to build and my family. Other riders are the same.<\/p>\n

“Of course now I am older and able to reflect in a way I didn’t five years ago, and I appreciate that in life there are times that, though it may be hard, it’s better to follow your morals. Right now I would do things in a different way.<\/p>\n

“Back then I really understood very little about Israel. The people behind the team had a desire to show off the beauty of the country \u2013 that was a clear policy of the team \u2013 but there were never any feelings against Gaza or Palestinians, or reference to the occupation in the West Bank. There was a lighter propaganda, let\u2019s say, where the view of Israel was projected. You could feel it was a complex, divided society. But you could also see that there was no space to discuss Gaza.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the team told the Observer that it does not comment on “personal opinion”.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most major protest at Israel-Premier Tech’s prominence in the sport came during this year’s Tour de France, the aforementioned Extinction Rebellion demonstrator wearing\u00a0a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan ‘Israel out of the Tour’ at the end of stage 11<\/a> in Toulouse.<\/p>\n

The protestor was arrested and will stand trial for endangering the riders, the Tour’s general commissioner St\u00e9phane Boury\u00a0intercepting them\u00a0just as Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid were sprinting for victory.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-IsraelAnti-Israel protester runs onto road during sprint finish, 2025 Tour de France, stage 11, Toulouse (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Claiming responsibility for the act, Extinction Rebellion said the protest was carried out “to denounce Tour de France’s complicity in the genocide”\u00a0and accused the race of “helping restore the image of the Israeli colonial regime”\u00a0by allowing Israel-Premier Tech to participate.<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Chaos follows the Tour: Protests, arrests, and apathy as anti-Israel activist \u2013 briefly \u2013 disrupts the Tour de France’s shiny fa\u00e7ade<\/a><\/p>\n

XR Toulouse also criticised the team’s\u00a0owner Adams, claiming that Israel-Premier Tech was created with the aim of “bleaching the image of the Israeli colonial regime”.<\/p>\n

\"TourTour de France stage 11 protester (credit: Ryan Mallon)<\/p>\n

“Neutrality does not exist. Not acting in a situation of oppression is like taking the side of the oppressor,”\u00a0the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n

At the Giro too, during the finale of the stage to Naples,\u00a0pro-Palestine activists ran into the road<\/a>,\u00a0on that occasion in front of a charging peloton, and not a two-up sprint. Other protests were seen at the Tour Down Under in Australia at the start of the season.<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0Israel\u2013Premier Tech\u00a0removed mention of Israel from\u00a0team vehicles for the 2024 season as a “precautionary measure”, replacing\u00a0explicit mention of Israel with an “IPT monogram, comprised of the Star of David and the Premier Tech ‘PT’, on the team vehicles and other branded elements”.<\/p>\n

The team did not win a stage at this year’s Tour, British rider Jake Stewart finishing sixth on stage 20 on Saturday. Stewart is one of five Brits to represent Israel-Premier Tech and counts\u00a0Froome, Joseph Blackmore, Ethan Vernon and Stephen Williams as teammates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his final season as a professional rider, Alessandro De Marchi says he is “happy and relieved” to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-29778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}