Factor will not continue with the Israel-Premier Tech team if they do not change their name and flag

The protests against the participation of the Israel-Premier Tech team during the recently concluded edition of La Vuelta are causing one of its main sponsors, the bicycle company Factor, to consider the continuity of their collaboration if the team remains linked to Israel.

Factor begins to consider its sponsorship of Israel-Premier as unsustainable

Although after the Tour de France, a verbal agreement for the indefinite continuation of the collaboration between the Israel-Premier Tech team and Factor Bikes was reported, now Rob Gitelis, founder of the brand, in statements to the well-known website Cyclingnews, states that he is considering whether to continue providing their bikes to this team.

Initially, Gitelis drew a clear line "without a name change, without a flag change, we will not continue" which adds pressure to the team owner, Sylvan Adams, who founded the team in homage to his native nation. The fact is that, in addition to displaying the name of Israel, which was removed from the uniforms and vehicle decorations during La Vuelta and the Canadian classics, the team is registered with Israeli nationality.

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Apparently, Adams may not object to removing the name of Israel as has happened in the recent races, but changing nationality seems more complicated. Meanwhile, the October 15 deadline set by the UCI for team registration for the upcoming season is approaching.

In any case, Gitelis does not take a stand on the issue of the invasion of Palestine, but rather his reasons are purely economic "It's not about right or wrong. Our brand has become too controversial and my responsibility to my employees and investors is to provide them with the maximum margin for this company to grow and be profitable".

The fact is that, according to the founder of Factor, there is no signed agreement beyond 2026 despite the announcement of continuity that the brand made after the Tour de France, so everything is still to be defined and there is even talk that Factor could become one of the main sponsors of the team, which would be renamed Factor-Premier Tech or Premier Tech-Factor.

As Rob Gitelis explains, the situation has become more urgent and serious since La Vuelta, but they have been facing protests since two years ago when Israel began its offensive on the Gaza Strip, protests that intensified from the Giro d'Italia to what was experienced in La Vuelta, and in fact, Factor has been ignoring the team in all its communication for months "It's hard to celebrate the team's victory, so we have been celebrating the cyclist's victory like when Stevie Williams won the Fleche Wallonne last year. We couldn't activate communication at the level we would have liked".