Israel-Premier Tech rider Pascal Ackermann. Photo courtesy of Noa Arnon.
JNS
“We ride around France with the largest live attendance of any sport in the world,” Sylvan Adams, the president of the World Jewish Congress-Israel and the owner of the elite cycling team Israel-Premier Tech, told JNS.
“There are 15 million people who line the streets watching the Tour de France bicycle race over three weeks, plus over two billion TV viewers,” he continued. “This is an enormous audience and we are reaching it with the word Israel.”
Founded over 10 years ago by Israeli businessman Ron Baron and former rider Ran Margaliot, IPT is competing this year for the sixth consecutive time in the Tour de France, its 112th edition. Adams joined the team nine years ago and became the owner in 2018.
Evolution Of The Team
“The visibility of our name goes that much higher. What we are doing is carrying the good name of Israel, the name of an open, tolerant, fair-play, sporting nation. It’s especially important in this difficult period—post-Oct. 7, 2023,” he said.
The Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught and the ensuing Gaza war “revealed latent anti-Semitism that is pervasive in cities all over the Western world. We are facing a very difficult time for world Jewry and I am proud to carry the good name of Israel,” he added.
Last year, the team made it to the top 10 for the first time in its history. IPT rider Derek Gee recently finished fourth in the 2025 edition of the Giro d’Italia bicycle race.
“When I joined, we were at the lowest levels of teams. We were a continental team, which does not have the opportunity to race in the biggest races like the Giro and the Tour de France, it is also not eligible to receive a wild-card invitation,” Adams told JNS.
“When I brought the Giro d’Italia to Israel. I realized we couldn’t stay continental, we needed to move to pro. We ended up getting a wild card to race in the Giro two years in a row—the first year because it was on Israeli soil, the second year because we were a very interesting team,” he continued.
“We moved up to the world tour, now we compete in all the big races. This is our sixth participation in the Tour de France. It’s a huge growth of the team. We recorded two stage wins in 2023. Out of the 22 teams participating, only around six or seven teams won a stage,” he added.
This year’s Tour, which began in Lille on July 5, will conclude on July 27 at the Champs-Élysées in Paris and has 21 stages racing a total of 2,075 miles (3,338.8 km.).
The IPT team features sprinter Pascal Ackermann (Germany), newcomer Joe Blackmore (U.K.), Guillaume Boivin (Canada), Matîs Louvel (France), Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan), Krists Neilands (Latvia), Critérium du Dauphiné stage winner Jake Stewart (U.K.) and climber Mike Woods (Canada).
Last year, IPT aimed for stage wins, but ended up changing its strategy as Derek Gee got into a breakaway early in the race and found himself highly placed in the general classification standings. With Gee, IPT finished ninth in the tour.
“This year, Derek is not here, and we are back to our strategy to hunt for stage wins. Will our strategy change? We have right now Joe Blackmore, who after two stages ranked 6 or 7, so we never know,” Adams continued.
Adams’ Philanthropy
“Last year, all riders were working to protect and defend Derek’s classification. Because of that, we did not end up winning a stage. If you go for one goal, you have to sacrifice others, so we have to decide as the race evolves,” he said.
Adams was recently honored in the TIME100 Philanthropy List. Among his many initiatives, he has funded a cutting-edge emergency medicine wing at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) and a new children’s hospital at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
Two months after the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, Adams announced a $100 million donation to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva.
He invited two survivors of the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri to the opening of last year’s Tour de France in Florence. This year, Adams extended an invitation to released Hamas hostages Ofer Kalderon and his son Erez of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Atmosphere At The Tour
“The cycling community is a family, and I kind of feel sometimes like I am the father of this family because of my involvement in cycling in the country. I made a public declaration that when they would be released, I would send them a personal invitation to the Tour de France because I know how much they both love the sport of cycling,” Adams said.
“Erez no longer rides a bike. I don’t know if it’s because perhaps he was traumatized, so I am not sure that he will join, but Ofer will be coming,” he continued.
“In my capacity as the president of WJC-Israel, I have reached out to the office of French President Emmanuel Macron to meet with Ofer and me. I think there is a good chance it will happen; it will be a nice warm gesture on behalf of Macron to give Ofer a hug and receive him at the Élysée Palace,” Adams said.
Despite the surge of anti-Israel sentiment in Europe, Adams expressed optimism regarding the atmosphere at the Tour.
“I ride on the course every day, I ride ahead of the race with the same uniform as the team and there are people who camp out. They are there 24 hours in advance to wait for the stage to come by and when we ride by, they see the name and they shout ‘Israel allez, allez!’” he said.
“The encouraging thing for me is to know that there is this silent majority of people who are not wrapped up in our conflict.
“Of course, they get negative media coverage about us, but they are regular folks, they are not the radical, hostile anti-Semitic fanatics sometimes organized by paid operatives,” he continued.
“We need to fight back. One of the ways to fight back is by reconnecting with that silent majority with our message of peace and sportsmanship. I feel we are doing good and valuable work for the state of Israel,” Adams said.
