Israel Start-Up Nation stayed true to the team’s core values in this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, always looking to get in the mix and show off the team colors with tenacity and strong performances. The highlight, of course, being the impressive stage win by Mads Würtz Schmidt on stage 6.

Despite a late change, which saw the team starting out the Italian WorldTour stage race without its two designated leaders for the GC, Israel Start-Up Nation quickly managed to re-focus on stage hunting instead of the general classification.

The ISN riders were constantly attentive near the front, joining the main breakaway on numerous occasions, fighting for victory. Guillaume Boivin, Guy Niv, Alessandro De Marchi and, especially, Würtz Schmidt showed incredible fighting spirit with countless courageous attacks, while Davide Cimolai and Hugo Hofstetter worked together impeccably in the deep finals of the bunch sprints.

In the end, the team finished off Tirreno-Adriatico with one stage win and four stage top-10s, while Würtz Schmidt took fourth place in the points classification and second place in the mountain classification. A truly impressive team performance, which sports director, Nicki Sørensen, was quick to point out as he summed up the last week of racing:

“I think this has been a great race for us”, Sørensen said. “We didn’t come here with any of the big guns for the GC so it was really important for me and for the team that we could punch above our weight in this race. One of the ways of doing that was to make sure that we really raced as a team and that everybody could find strength within themselves via the team. I think we succeeded in doing that and I could see the team grow stronger every day. We didn’t have any top results until stage 6, but we were still animating a lot of the stages with all the breakaways and good teamwork in the bunch sprints.

“To see what happened on stage 6, with Mads winning from the break, that was just amazing. It was the biggest performance he has ever done and our third WorldTour victory as a team. It was a fantastic achievement and I couldn’t be more proud of Mads, the team and the whole staff here. Everybody has been working so well together. It really has been a great week of racing for us!”