{"id":250059,"date":"2025-11-07T21:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/250059\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T21:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:29:07","slug":"israel-premier-techs-main-sponsor-withdraws-backing-citing-untenable-position-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/250059\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Premier Tech\u2019s main sponsor withdraws backing citing \u2018untenable\u2019 position | Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main sponsor of the Israel-Premier Tech (IPT) team of the four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome<\/a> has pulled out of funding the team, despite a pledge to rebrand and distance itself from its Israeli identity. The Canadian company Premier Tech, in a statement issued on Friday, said that it had decided to \u201cstep down as co-title sponsor of the team, taking effect immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we took notice of the team\u2019s decision to change its name for the 2026 season,\u201d the statement said, \u201cthe core reason for Premier Tech to sponsor the team has been overshadowed to a point where it has become untenable for us to continue as a sponsor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the latest setback, the team are understood to be forging ahead with plans for the 2026 season, after stating in September that a rebrand was \u201cessential to securing the future of the team\u201d.<\/p>\n

IPT was plunged into crisis by mass protests against the team\u2019s presence during September\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, which culminated in the cancellation of the final stage<\/a> of the three-week race in Madrid.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, further protests against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza were threatened at other races around Europe and at the Grand D\u00e9part of next year\u2019s Tour de France, in Barcelona, while rival teams considered boycotting races at which IPT was present. Although Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had praised the team for not \u201cgiving in to hate\u201d after the numerous pro-Palestine protests at the Vuelta, IPT subsequently announced that it was \u201cmoving away from its Israeli identity\u201d.<\/p>\n

The team also withdrew from a series of autumnal one-day races for security reasons, while sponsors, including Premier Tech and Factor Bikes, publicly called for changes to the team\u2019s identity. The squad\u2019s leading performer, the Canadian rider Derek Gee, fourth overall in this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia, also announced that he was cancelling his contract due to what he described as \u201cserious concerns\u201d and added that \u201ccertain issues simply made my continuation at the team untenable\u201d.<\/p>\n

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IPT\u2019s high-profile owner, Sylvan Adams, has described himself as a \u201cself-appointed ambassador to Israel\u201d and is a confidante of Netanyahu. When the rebranding of the team was announced Adams said: \u201cThis is a very painful moment in my life. As an Israeli whose heart and blood are blue and white, as an immigrant who made Israel my home, as a patriot and Zionist, I cannot, at this moment, continue to take an active part in a team that no longer bears the name Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The main sponsor of the Israel-Premier Tech (IPT) team of the four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-250059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}