Alex Dowsett has joined Israel Cycling Academy on a one-year contract, the same move made by five of his team-mates at Katusha-Alpecin, which is folding at the end of the year.
Israel Cycling Academy, which has also signed Dan Martin from UAE Team Emirates, expects to secure UCI WorldTour status for next season, although it is still awaiting formal notification from the governing body.
Former UCI Hour Record holder Dowsett said: “I think Israel Cycling Academy is a very progressive team with a focus on performance without compromise. There seems to be modern-day thinking.
“As a rider, that is all I ask for. I also think a name change should be considered. A step up to the World Tour surely means Israel Cycling Academy has graduated from an Academy to a great team now.”
Ahead of what will be his tenth season in the WorldTour, Dowsett added: “I am looking forward to it and strongly focused on the Olympic Games.
“Obviously, I first need to get selected for the national team. Afterward, I want to win the gold medal in Tokyo. Israel Cycling Academy is a perfect fit for these goals.”
Team manager Kjell Carlström believes that Dowsett will help strengthen the squad, saying: “Alex is great in ITTs and TTTs, but also in supporting the team, for example, in bringing key riders into position.”
The 31-year-old from Essex joined Team Sky in 2011 after a year with the Trek-Livestrong development squad.
In 2013, he signed for Movistar, spending five seasons there before his switch to Katusha-Alpecin in 2018.
Dowsett followed up his sixth British national time trial title this year with fifth place in the event at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Yorkshire.
His biggest career win came in the Stage 8 individual time trial at the Giro d’Italia in 2013, and he also won the overall title as well as a stage at the 2015 Bayern Rundfahrt.
A haemophiliac, Dowsett runs the Little Bleeders charitable foundation, which aims to raise awareness of the condition.
Besides Dowsett, Israel Cycling Academy also announced the signing of Reto Hollenstein, which brings to six the number of former Katusha-Alpecin riders in the team – the others being Rick Zabel, Mads Wurtz Schmidts, Dani Navarro, and Jenthe Biermans.
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Hmm, a few years ago I would have said something similar about Astana (for the drugs thing...) they are dirty, tainted etc., etc. And Vinokourov is still there after all. But then I realized that most pros going there often have very few choices at the highest level. If Sky *cough* didn't want you then most of the other teams were tainted. Ideally there would be more choices and then we could get on our high horses about politics, but it just isn't worth it. Please climb down carefully from yours.
Sports and politics, forever interlinked but never should be, when it goes as far as the ICA go in the sense of being their political connection/association then I also think it's a bit too much particularly when we know full well what's going on.
And yes, China, UAE and so on really should be looked at with closer scrutiny but the ASO aren't interested just like most riders except for chasing the money.
Sad
Look at their https://israelcyclingacademy.com/social-youth-projects/ - and follow the links.
I know this will offend some ... I make no apology. Long overdue that sports bodies and participants had the guts to apply the same boycotts that they applied to apartheid S Africa.
Any thoughts on UAE BahrainMerida?
Plenty, just unprintable.
Beyond a simple suggestion that "sports-wash" of extraordinarily dirty regimes stinks? With respect, your "UAE BahreinMerida" "sports-washes" the UAE's role in the Yemeni conflict. And that hits personally.
Oh come off it, mate. Do you cry so loudly when the UCI visits Oman, or Turkey, or China? What about Team Bahrain Merida? Did you protest on here when Nibali signed for a team sponsored by a theocratic dictatorship with an appalling human rights record and zero democracy? No, of course you didn't, because complaining about those countries would suggest a level of even-handedness.
Sorry for the whinge, everyone, but the way Israel gets pilloried by some is at best inconsistent and at worst sinister.
Not inconsistent.
And how f***ing dare you suggest it's "sinister"? Come on - say what you meant to say, but wanted to conceal.