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Israel Start-up Nation heads to Girona training camp

First race in early February

Photo by: Courtesy of Israel Start-up Nation, noA Toledo Arnon
January 11, 2021
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Israel Start-up Nation begins its season with a 10-day training camp in Girona, Spain starting Tuesday, with some of the riders heading south to 2.Pro-rated Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana from February 3-7. The squad has taken on eight new riders this season, including Chris Froome and Michael Woods. ISUN enjoys the most Canadian riders of any WorldTour team; Woods will ride alongside Guillaume Boivin, Alex Cataford and James Piccoli.

Originally, the team was to have a season-opening camp in Israel, but once again COVID-19 interfered. Team principal Sylvan Adams said, “It was impossible to confidently hold the camp in Israel, as we usually do, due to the COVID restrictions and with the borders closed to non-Israelis. So, we intend to do a second camp in Israel as soon as possible.”

Froome, however, will stay in California to continue training and rehab. Froome debuts for ISUN at the 2.Pro-rated Volta ao Algarve in Portugal February 17-21. Froome is also slated for the WorldTour’s Volta Ciclista a Cataluya in March, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de France.

Woods’ schedule is undeclared, as is most of Dan Martin’s, except for the 2.Pro-rated Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol, also in Spain from February 17-21. Martin enjoyed his best-ever Grand Tour result last season with fourth in the Vuelta a España.

Many WorldTour teams are training in Spain this month, with Astana-Premier Tech, the second-most Canadian team in the WT peloton, training in Benidorm. AG2R-Citroën, Trek-Segafredo and Lotto-Soudal in working out in Denia, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Bahrain-Victorious in Altea and Ineos on Gran Canaria.

The WorldTour finally gets underway February 21 at the UAE Tour. The day that stage race ends, February 27, is the first one-day race of the series, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, rolls in Belgium.