NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
The first day at school is enough to make anyone nervous. The routines are new, the places unfamiliar and the faces unknown. Do you belong here? How will you fit in? So spare a thought for Guy Niv, the first ever Israeli rider to ride the Tour de France. He lined up in Nice last weekend and is, as you read this, speeding his way across southern France. He’ll have experienced riders around him in André Greipel and Dan Martin. No one is expecting him to deliver results beyond helping those leaders with their respective goals, but it marks a crowning achievement for him, and indeed for Israel Start-Up Nation.
“I have goosebumps just thinking about it,” said Niv ahead of the Grand Départ. “It’s huge. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – and now we are about to make history.”
In just five short years, the team has gone from its first race as a Continental level team to signing Chris Froome, the most dominant Grand Tour rider of his generation.
