In A First, An Israeli Will Race In The Tour De France, World’s Premier Cycling Event
Team Israel Start-Up Nation Image by procyclingstats.com
JERUSALEM (JTA) — For the first time, an Israeli will compete in the Tour de France, the world’s premier cycling event.
Guy Niv, 26, is a member of Team Israel Start-Up Nation, the first Israel-based and -owned team to race in the Tour de France.
The team, which was established in 2015 as the Israel Cycling Academy, joined the World Tour, the highest level of professional cycling, last year. That gave it a place in this year’s Tour de France, one of cycling’s three Grand Tours along with the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, three-week races run in stages.
Until three years ago, Niv was primarily a mountain biker and had little experience in road racing, the team said in its announcement Wednesday.
“I am honored and privileged to represent my country and team in the biggest race in cycling and one of the greatest sporting events in the world. And to be the first Israeli to do so? It might sound like a cliché, but it’s a dream come true,” Niv said. “I have goosebumps just thinking about it. Its huge. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do — and now we are about to make history.”
He recalled that at the time of his bar mitzvah, he asked his parents to take him to the Tour de France as a birthday present.
The decision to select Niv was influenced partly by the route of this year’s Tour de France, which features nearly 55,000 yards of climbing, according to team manager Kjell Carlstrom.
Niv raced as part of Israel’s team in the 2019 Giro d’Italia.
Israelis will race in two other Grand Tour races later this year: Guy Sagiv in the Giro d’Italia and Omer Goldstein in the Vuelta a Espana.
Team co-owner Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli real estate magnate, in 2018 brought the Giro d’Italia cycling race to Israel for the first three stages, the first time any leg of cycling’s Grand Tour races took place outside of Europe.
The post In a first, an Israeli will race in the Tour de France, world’s premier cycling event appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
