Israel Cycling Academy's team manager and co-founder Ran Margaliot says that stage wins are the aim for the team if they make it to the Giro d'Italia next May. The wildcard announcement will not be made until early next year but it is more than likely that Israel Cycling Academy will be at the start given the location of the Grande Partenza.
If they do earn the much-desired berth in the Italian Grand Tour, it will be a historic moment for the team as the first Israeli registered squad to ride a three-week race, but Margaliot is not content with making up the numbers.
"We are after victories," Margaliot told Cyclingnews at a recent team camp in Israel.
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Margaliot, who was Israel's first WorldTour rider back in 2010 as a trainee for Footon-Servetto before moving on to Saxo Bank the following year, has been busy over the winter shoring up the team in a bid to achieve this goal. He has brought in ten riders for 2018, including Tour of Oman winner Ben Hermans from BMC and the vastly experienced Ruben Plaza from Orica-Scott. The team hopes that the signing spree will be the last piece to the puzzle in earning that wildcard spot.
"It was pretty strict from RCS that we had to gain our invitation like everybody else sports-wise, which is why we were active in the transfer market," said Margaliot. "Obviously, we had some weaknesses that we had to fill. We didn't really have a proper climber this year, and now we do with Ben, Ruben and Nathan [Earle], who are all good climbers.
"We didn't really have a top sprinter last year. We had Mihkel [Raim], who achieved some solid results, but now we have Sondre [Enger] and Kristian [Sbaragli]. They're not the Cavs and Greipels, but they can get there one day. Maybe not Kristian, but Sondre is the real thing. We also brought experience. It was a development team two years ago, I had a few more older guys last year but now I've got Ruben who is 37 years old, he's a grandfather. I like the way that it has changed the dynamics."
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