Guy Sagiv

Guy Sagiv was born in Belgium while his parents were residing there temporarily, but returned to Israel at age three and grew up in Moshav Givat Nili, a small agricultural community near Zikhron Ya'akov.[1] His path into cycling began informally, when he started mountain biking with his father at around age eight or nine.[1] He joined a competitive cycling club at approximately ten or eleven years old and began entering mountain-bike races from age eleven.[1]

By the time he joined Israel Cycling Academy in 2015, Sagiv had transitioned fully to road cycling.[1] He came to understand the sport's complex team dynamics — riders are expected not only to pursue their own results but to shelter a designated leader from the wind, deliver food and water during races, and assist with mechanical problems on the road.[1] At the time of a 2018 interview, Sagiv had been living in Girona, Spain, for approximately a year and a half, drawn by its good roads, favorable cycling conditions, and the presence of the team's logistical center.[1] He was then in a long-term relationship with Israeli road-cycling champion Omer Shapira, the two having met through cycling and been together for seven years.[1]

Sagiv joined Israel Cycling Academy in 2015, becoming one of five Israelis on the 24-member roster when the team was preparing for the 2018 season, alongside Roy Goldstein, Omer Goldstein, Guy Niv, and Aviv Yechezkel.[2] The academy, founded in Jerusalem in December 2014, was described as Israel's first professional cycling team and first competed at the second-tier Pro Continental level in 2017.[3]

In early 2018, ahead of the Giro d'Italia selection, Sagiv produced a notable ride at the Milan-San Remo classic: he was among nine riders in an early breakaway and, together with teammate Dennis Van Winden, stayed in the lead group for 250 kilometers before the peloton caught them on the 291-kilometer course, which Vincenzo Nibali ultimately won.[4] During the 2018 Tirreno-Adriatico, academy riders including Sagiv led breakaways for three consecutive stages as part of the team's broader effort to raise cycling's profile in Israel.[5]

Sagiv competed for one of what was expected to be a single Israeli spot on the academy's eight-rider Giro d'Italia squad, alongside Guy Niv and Roy Goldstein.[4] Despite the competitive dynamic, Sagiv emphasized the mutual support among the three riders: "This is our career and this is our life, but we also all undoubtedly want the best for each other. There is no doubt that this is a very special race but there will be more races."[4] He noted that experience and knowledge of team responsibilities were factors he considered advantages in the selection process.[4] Sagiv also had to overcome knee inflammation during the season, which delayed his preparation and made his participation uncertain before he recovered sufficiently to compete.[1]

Both Sagiv and Niv ultimately made the Giro squad, becoming the first Israelis to participate in a Grand Tour when they started the 2018 race from Jerusalem.[1] The 2018 Giro d'Italia opened with three stages in Israel, including a second stage from Haifa to Tel Aviv — a 167-kilometer route won by Elia Viviani in 3:51:20 — in which Sagiv finished 35th.[6] He went on to complete all three weeks of competition, which covered more than 3,500 kilometers, included tens of thousands of meters of climbing, and crossed multiple European mountain summits.[7] Sagiv finished 141st among the 149 riders who completed the race out of 176 starters, making him the first Israeli cyclist to finish a Grand Tour.[7][8]

Reflecting on the experience afterward, Sagiv said: "If I had known before the start in Jerusalem ... how far and how deeply I would have to push my body and mental strength, I would not have believed that I was capable of enduring it."[7] Academy director Óscar Guerrero praised Sagiv for enduring difficult moments, staying focused, and improving as the race progressed, adding that Sagiv was clearly at least as good as 50 riders in the field and that the Giro represented only the beginning of his development.[7] Team co-owner Sylvan Adams called Sagiv's performance inspiring and said he had demonstrated that he was a "fantastic Israeli athlete" who would open the way for others.[7]

For the 2020 season, Sagiv was one of four Israelis on the renamed Israel Start-Up Nation team — alongside Guy Niv, Itamar Einhorn, and Omer Goldstein — as the squad entered the UCI WorldTour after taking the place of the Swiss Katusha-Alpecin team.[3] That year he completed his second Grand Tour, finishing the 2020 Giro d'Italia in 132nd place, though he sustained a serious injury early in the race that affected his ability to recover from the event's demands.[9] He has been described as a three-time Israeli champion.[9]

Sagiv and Shapira married in October 2022. By 2024 they were raising their daughter, Dani, between Andorra and Girona while coordinating childcare with demanding training schedules. In February 2024, Sagiv was diagnosed with the Epstein–Barr virus, which caused mononucleosis and forced him to pause full training to avoid the risk of chronic fatigue during a season he considered critical to his future with Israel–Premier Tech.[10]

Sagiv described professional cycling as "the hardest sport in the world," pointing to the demands of training outdoors in conditions ranging from extreme heat to snow.[1] He explained that riders may train between one and eight hours per day, with the rest of their time devoted to stretching, massage, rest, nutrition, and preparation for the following session.[1] His career with Israel Cycling Academy illustrated cycling's team-oriented nature: even in major races, individual riders frequently sacrifice their own standings to protect team leaders or assist colleagues in difficulty.[1]

Sagiv's completion of the 2018 Giro d'Italia stands as a landmark in Israeli sporting history.[8] By becoming the first Israeli cyclist to finish a Grand Tour — one of cycling's three most demanding races, alongside the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España — he demonstrated that Israeli riders could compete at the sport's highest level.[1][7] The milestone was achieved through Israel Cycling Academy's first Grand Tour appearance, a team founded only four years earlier with the explicit goal of developing professional cycling in Israel.[3]

Team leadership viewed Sagiv's performance as having historic significance beyond his individual result. Director Guerrero's assessment that the Giro was "only the beginning" of Sagiv's development, and Adams's remark that Sagiv would "open the way for others," underscored the role his participation was seen to play in building a professional cycling culture in Israel.[7] Sagiv joined Israel Cycling Academy in 2015.[1] He remained with the organization through its later names, Israel Start-Up Nation and Israel–Premier Tech, and was still riding for Israel–Premier Tech in 2024, nearly a decade after joining the original team.[3][10]