The protests of La Vuelta erase Israel from the team

During this weekend, the GP de Quebec and the GP de Montreal, the two Canadian races integrated in the World Tour will be disputed. An unavoidable appointment for Israel-PremierTech as this brand has its headquarters in Quebec, the birthplace of the team owner, the Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams. However, not even there will the controversial team find respite.

Petitions to veto the Israel-PremierTech team cross the pond to Canada

During the last few days, spurred by the demonstrations against Israel's invasion of Gaza and the request for the expulsion of the Israel-PremierTech team from the competition, numerous groups supporting the Palestinian cause have asked the organization of the GP de Quebec and the GP de Montreal, the two Canadian races of the World Tour, to withdraw the invitation to this team, threatening with actions if they take part in both races.

An invitation that, like La Vuelta, they cannot ignore since, despite Israel-PremierTech being a Pro Team, the second tier in world cycling, the fact of having been one of the two best teams at this level during the past season grants them automatic invitation to all World Tour races as established by the UCI.

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While participation in these races is voluntary and not mandatory as it is for World Tour category teams, Israel-PremierTech was absent, given the hostile environment it knew awaited them in the Basque Country, from races like Itzulia or Clásica de San Sebastián but, obviously, both La Vuelta a España, where protests have reached the point of conditioning the race development, and the Canadian classics, of special importance to their main sponsor Premier Tech, are too relevant to give up on them.

To try to reduce the attention on them, Israel-PremierTech has requested the organization of the Canadian classics to officially change the name of these races so that in press releases, classifications, and others, the Israeli team will appear with the name IPT.

Similarly, just as they have already done in La Vuelta, their vehicles and the cyclists' kits will no longer display the word Israel, a kit that the cyclists already had as it is the neutral kit designed for day-to-day training.

In any case, the organization of Quebec and Montreal is already coordinating with the local authorities of both cities to deal with the expected protests, fueled by those that have been taking place in La Vuelta and by the escalation in the situation in Gaza in recent days.