Israel Start-Up Nation psyched for 2nd Tour
With revamped roster headlined by 4-time champion Froome, blue-and-white team has high hopes
“The Tour de France is the biggest thing in cycling. Being here for the second time is a symbol of achievement for Israel StartUp Nation and this year we hope to make some noise!” exclaimed team co-owner Sylvan Adams said at the team’s pre-Tour press conference on Wednesday.
The team is equally as excited. Mike Woods is making his debut as Tour team leader.
“I certainly feel ready for the role. Unlike the other big names, I don’t have the expectations or pressure they have. I think I can be quite competitive at this race. I feel I have shown I am one of the strongest climbers in the peloton. I know that time trials are my weakness, but I feel like I have improved. And my goals are both to do well in the GC and to get stage wins. If I lose too much time in the time trials I will probably have more opportunities to attack in other stages.”
Chris Froome is “really excited for this year’s start,” especially after missing the last two Tours due to recovering from a horrible crash in 2019. “Being back at last really motivates me, and it is special to be here with ISN.”
This year Froome – a four-time Tour de France champion – will be in a supporting role, but he has no problem with that.
“I am not going for GC but only to help the guys around me. Usually, the guys have done everything for me, now it is the other way around and I am glad to be able to pay it back a little.”
Israeli Omer Goldstein is honored to be riding his first Tour.
“It’s really big. I am very excited and come here with a good form. I think we can do something big.”
Goldstein knows his role is to help the team get a stage win or GC, and to be in a break group. In a hilly or mountain stage,
I think I can do something in a break. Let’s see what the legs give me.”
Goldstein has trained extensively with Froome, who was very complimentary of his younger teammate.
“Omer is a huge talent coming out of Israel. He is not here as ‘the token Israeli.’ He deserves to be here because he’s a good rider.”
Although he’ll be wearing the ISN blueand-white, Woods will also be representing Canada, along with Guillaume Boivin, who is making his debut. Woods sees the race as “an opportunity to represent Canada, and hopefully to motivate more Canadians to get on bikes, which is really important to me.”
The Canadian-Israeli Adams agreed. “We are the natural team for two countries – Israel of course, but also we are Canada’s team. I am really happy that we have two Canadians and one Israeli in our Tour de France line-up.”
At the Tour, the team will also be competing with the motto of “Racing for Change.”
As Adams put it, “We are more than just a cycling team. There is a Jewish concept called tikkun olam, an imperative to help improve the world. We are doing so by adopting a women’s team in Rwanda, the only women’s team there. We want to not only help them but to use it as a message to society to increase unity and peace in the world.”
Star-studded Ineos-Grenadiers holds key to intriguing race
Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic are the clear favorites for this year’s Tour de France, but an aggressive and star-studded Ineos-Grenadiers team may hold the key to the race, which sets out from the port city of Brest on Saturday.
Pogacar blew Roglic away in the final time trial to win the race last year, and the 22-year-old has also triumphed in the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Slovenia stage races in the lead-up to the Tour with dominant rides in the mountains.
Roglic, meanwhile, beat his young compatriot at the Tour of the Basque country in their only head-to-head duel in a stage race this season, more than two months ago.
Roglic has not raced since late April, looking to spare himself ahead of the Tour as the top contenders avoid each other, making the outcome of the three-week event starting from Brittany, the homeland of French cycling, harder to guess.
Geraint Thomas has been rediscovering his 2018 Tour-winning form this year, and he will share the leadership of Ineos-Grenadiers with 2020 Giro d’Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart and Richard Carapaz, who won the Giro in 2019.
Australian Richie Porte, who came third on the Tour last year, is also in the squad, which will no doubt be looking to blow up the race.
While Pogacar has shown more individual brilliance than Thomas, Carapaz or Geoghegan Hart, he is likely to suffer if the British outfit try to attack him with several riders.
“We won’t win this tour by sitting on the wheels. We have the team to make it a racers’ race, take the initiative, seize every opportunity and make our opposition focus for every kilometer of every stage,” team manager Dave Brailsford said.
“We have changed our race philosophy this season to being more open and aggressive. Our performances have built all season and a joy of racing has infused the whole team.”
With his climbing abilities, Ecuador’s Carapaz could emerge as the team leader as the Tour progresses. But as long as Thomas, Geoghegan Hart and Porte are in the mix, their rivals will need to keep an eye on all of them.
“Carapaz seems to be the best-placed although they won’t designate him right away [as team leader],” said a sports director, who declined to be named but has led several title contenders on the Tour.
“They also have the advantage of making fewer strategic mistakes.”
Before the race reaches the Alps, world champion Julian Alaphilippe of France and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel look set to battle it out for the first yellow jersey in the opening stage from Brest to Landerneau, which ends with a short climb that suits both riders.
Should Van der Poel win, he would find himself wearing the yellow jersey on his Tour debut, a feat his grandfather, the late Raymond Poulidor, never achieved despite finishing on the podium eight times and winning seven stages.
The riders will climb Ventoux twice on the 11th stage between the Alps and the Pyrenees, where the Queen stage of the race will take the peloton up Luz Ardiden after scaling the Col du Tourmalet.
Another British rider, sprinter Mark Cavendish, also returns after three years away, earning a late call-up from his Deceuninck-Quick Step team, although he is likely to struggle to add to his remarkable 30 stage victories.