The Israeli Tour de France cycling team, Israel - Premier Tech, will give its riders blank training kits instead of their usual Israel-emblazoned uniforms as a security precaution in light of the Israel-Gaza War.

Riders have said they now fear retaliation when wearing the Israel kit when out riding, and support staff members have made it known they don’t feel comfortable driving cars wrapped in the team’s logo and name, as first reported by Dutch outlet Wielerflits.

The team confirmed to the JC that blank training kits are currently being produced and will be handed to its athletes ahead of the new year, a time when all teams usually receive their new kits for the race season ahead.

It is not mandatory for riders, the majority of whom live on continental Europe, to wear the blank kit while out training, but it’s an option for them when riding alone, a time when they fear being tracked down and attacked. When they are with teammates at training camps or races, however, riders will wear their regular team kit.

The team’s owner, Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams, is defiant in his desire for the team to go on as normal, telling the RadioCycling podcast: “Should we be intimidated by genocide terrorists? When ISIS threatened the world, did it stop turning? Should we be afraid then? No, we are not going to bow down to that. We continue with our daily work. We expect a normal season and are not going to hide.”

“The 2024 season will be our tenth season in the pro peloton and we will continue to proudly race as Israel – Premier Tech,” the team said in a statement. “The safety and security of our team members is of the utmost importance and as such, the team has implemented some measures for the 2024 season. This includes the use of a training kit, which our riders can opt to wear when outside of the race bubble and training alone, if they deem it necessary.”

Security concerns are nothing new for the team. At the start of the 2022 Tour de France in Copenhagen, police were stationed 24/7 at the team’s hotel, which is standard practice for any Israeli delegation in Denmark since the 2015 terrorist attack outside the Great Synagogue in the Danish capital.

Riders from the team watching the news in the days following October 7 (Photo: Israel - Premier Tech)

Protestors waving Palestinian flags can often be spotted camped outside the team bus at races across Europe, but are often small-scale affairs. With the cycling season ending in October and not resuming until mid-January, it’s currently unclear if the war will create fresh security concerns for the team when at events.

Israel - Premier Tech ranked in the top two places in cycling’s second division for 2023, meaning it will receive automatic ‘wildcard’ invites to all top-level races next year, including the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. Other smaller races are invite-only, and the team says it has received all its usual invitations and there have been no issues in that regard so far. This includes February’s UAE Tour, which Israel - Premier Tech have competed at since 2020 in light of the Abraham Accords signed that year, and have been a key part of what Adams’ calls “sports diplomacy”, the intended goal of his funding of the team.

For the riders and staff members at Israel - Premier Tech, most of whom are not Jewish, the situation is a glimpse of the tension and fear the conflict entails for Israelis and Palestinians. A glimpse that outsiders do not usually get.