The boss of Israel’s cycling team, Sylvan Adams, is reclining in garden furniture above the Alpine town of Megève on the Tour de France’s second rest day.

“Did you know the Christian community hid 300 Jewish kids here?” asks his media director, Tsadok Yecheskeli.

“That’s beautiful,” the Israeli-Canadian billionaire replies, in a moment that captures the heart and drive of the man behind Israel’s stunning success on the world cycling stage.

Adams’s father fled Nazi camps to find sanctuary in Mandatory Palestine and, with Team Israel, he is on a mission to promote and celebrate the land that saved his father.
Going by the reception his team has enjoyed on this year’s Tour, Adams is achieving exactly that.

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Belgian Sep Vanmarcke of Israel-Premier Tech pictured during a team presentation ahead of the Baloise Belgium Tour cycling race, in Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, Tuesday 13 June 2023. (Photo by DAVID PINTENS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)

“I saw these people who had a big Israeli flag,” he says. “And I decided to stop because I thought they were going to be our fans. I started speaking in Hebrew but they didn’t speak Hebrew. So I said are you Jewish? ‘No,’ they answered. ‘We just like the team.’

“They just like the team,” Adams smiles, remembering the moment. “So how nice is that? They’re putting up Israeli flags because they like the team.”

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Premier Tech's Danish rider Mads Wurtz Schmidt (C) waves on stage during the opening ceremony and team presentation in Pescara, on May 4, 2023, two days before the departure of the Giro d'Italia 2023 cycling race. (Photo by Luca Bettini / AFP) (Photo by LUCA BETTINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Adams rides his bike every day of the race alongside Yecheskeli and the 50-50 co-owner of Premier Tech Israel, the Israeli businessman and banking lawyer Ron Baron, as well as whichever guests have come to town.

“We were in Vichy,” Adams recalls, “which was the headquarters of the Nazi-installed French government of Marshal Pétain, and we were in this grand hotel. Beautiful, but totally run-down. And Tsadok pointed out that this was the headquarters of the Pétain government.”

“He actually lived in one of the suites,” Yecheskeli chimes in.

“So are you aware that my parents were both Holocaust survivors?” Adams says, moving on at high speed.

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Sylvan Adam's Holocaust survivor parents Annie and Marcel Adams (handout)

Sylvan’s father, Marcel, was born in 1920 to a Jewish family in Romania and was forced to work in Nazi labour camps between 1941 and 1944 before he escaped, fled to Turkey and reached Mandatory Palestine, where he fought for the independence of Israel.

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Sylvan Adams with his father Marcel (handout)

In the early 1950s, he emigrated to Canada and followed in his father’s footsteps by working as a tanner. Soon afterward he married Annie Adams, in 1953, and had four children, including Sylvan. After a successful career in property development, he handed his business over to Sylvan, who himself has now passed the running of it down to his son, Josh. Sylvan’s net worth is estimated to be around $1.7billion.

Returning to his journey across France, he says: “I was thinking of my parents while we were in Vichy, in that hotel in particular. I’m not religious, perfectly happy to be secular. I’m not shomer Shabbat and I don’t keep kosher. I have no restrictions — I ride my bike on Yom Kippur — but I consider myself to be the most Jewish person you’re ever going to meet. Because I love what makes us a nation. Our beautiful ancient story.”

Cycling is just one of several lavish projects Adams has taken on to promote Israel. Others include Israeli moon landings, hospitals and medical scholarships, and even paying for Madonna to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv in 2019.

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Madonna, performs live on stage after the 64th annual Eurovision Song Contest held at Tel Aviv Fairgrounds on May 18, 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Michael Campanella/Getty Images)

But cycling is one of his great loves, having personally won two Masters World Championship titles and brought the Giro d’Italia (the Italian version of the Tour de France) to Israel for three days at a personal cost of €20million. That was before providing the backing for the Israel-Premier Tech cycling team to reach the top division of the sport and gain a coveted Tour de France spot.

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Israeli-Canadian billionaire cyclist and businessman Sylvan Adams (Photo: Getty)

But his bike team has a simple goal: “Israel being disseminated to hundreds of millions of people,” he says. It’s the culmination of a personal passion and a worldwide advertising board to win hearts and minds to the Israeli cause.

“I don’t like to say it’s a mixture of sports and politics,” Adams says. “I like to say it’s ‘sports diplomacy’. I make a distinction.”

Every January, the team travels to Israel for a bonding camp, and new riders remark that the country they find is vastly different to what is portrayed in the news.

Chris Froome, the team’s marquee rider and most expensive signing to date, recently took a trip to experience the Israel National Trail, which has been emblazoned on the team’s Tour de France kit this year.

There’s nothing we loved more than seeing Mike Woods winning a Tour de France stage in our special edition jersey celebrating the Israel National Trail! As part of our celebration of Israel, Chris Froome embarked on his own adventure, a Tour of Israel! 🇮🇱#TourTheTrail… pic.twitter.com/ScjPJitZ4v

— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) July 13, 2023

“He’s genuine when you see his surprise,” Adams says of Froome’s moments of discovery in Israel. “And he has a youthful nature. Almost like he’s a kid again.”

In the face of his critics, who accuse him of sportswashing, Adams stands firm. “First of all, why would I move from one place to a totalitarian or a horrible ‘apartheid’ state?’” he says of his move in 2015 from Canada to Israel.

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L'chaim: Sylvan Adams (centre) with the Israel team

“You can choose where you want to live, especially when you’re a billionaire. And by the way, apartheid? That’s an insult to the people who suffered under that despicable system.”

As for the sporting side of cycling, Adams couldn’t be happier. His team finished this Tour with a coveted stage win for the second year in a row, and they can call it a successful three weeks of racing.

Adams is captivating company; his description of himself as “ambitious and impatient” is spot on.

One other thing is for sure: Israel and Jewishness has the sort of ambassador any country could only dream of.

Whatever Adams turns his attention to next, you can be sure it will soon become a reality.