NSN Cycling Team: who are behind the unexpected new player in the 2026 WorldTour?

The end of the Israel Premier Tech era did not come as a surprise for those who followed the turbulence of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza had grown louder and more disruptive, leading to several shortened stages and ultimately the cancelled final stage of the Vuelta a España. 

Riders and staff expressed concerns about safety and the team eventually opted out of much of the Italian autumn. Premier Tech demanded that the Israeli identity be removed from the name, but even that adjustment could not keep the project together. 

Both Premier Tech and bike supplier Factor chose to step away, and the structure needed a complete reset.

That reset arrived this November with the announcement of NSN Cycling Team. The name comes from NSN, short for Never Say Never, a sports and entertainment company based near Barcelona. NSN will run the project alongside the Swiss investment platform Stoneweg, which provides the financial stability needed at WorldTour level. 

The message was clear. The old identity is finished. The future is international, entertainment focused and free from the political weight that had shaped the end of the Israel Premier Tech era.

Until this week, NSN was virtually unknown inside cycling. Beyond having a stake in a gravel bike brand called GUAVA, they had no footprint in the sport. What they do have is global reach. NSN was co-founded by Andrés Iniesta, the former Barcelona midfielder and scorer of Spain’s winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final. 

Through Iniesta’s network the company operates across Spain, Japan, the United States, Latin America and the UAE. Their portfolio includes football matches, documentary production, music festivals and even art exhibitions. It is a very different world from traditional cycling sponsorship.

NSN has staged preseason tours for Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, organised friendly matches between Real Madrid and Barcelona in Asia and produced major entertainment events featuring names like Martin Garrix. 

The company sees cycling as a global sport that has yet to unlock its full commercial potential. In the words of NSN founder Joel Borràs, entering the sport is both a challenge and an opportunity. It fits with their values and offers a chance to bring new energy into a discipline that often moves slowly when it comes to innovation.

That ambition has now taken concrete form. In addition to acquiring the WorldTour licence, NSN is also taking over the Development structure of the former Israel Premier Tech organisation, which is an encouraging sign for the broader base of the sport and reflects NSN’s commitment to a long-term presence in cycling.

Although the project is registered in Switzerland, it will be run from Barcelona and Girona, and around 170 staff and riders are guaranteed continuity for the next three years across WorldTour events such as the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. The team will be led by former Finnish professional Kjell Carlström.

The team has been registered in Switzerland with its operational base in Barcelona and Girona. Owner Sylvan Adams, long associated with the Israeli identity of the project, has stepped aside. 

While three Israeli riders remain under contract (Oded Kogut, Itamar Einhorn and Nadav Raisberg, the structure has been rebuilt without any visible institutional ties to Israel. It is a clean break overseen by Stoneweg and NSN. The team intends to stand on its own, far removed from the tensions and political noise of the past seasons.

The unfinished business is Derek Gee’s contract dispute. The Canadian left the team in August citing moral concerns and safety issues. He was hit with a damages claim of thirty million euros, but the case has been silent for a while. The question is now what might be the impact of the change in ownership for Gee's future? 

The new structure suggests a different relationship from the emotionally charged stand off of the summer, and a change of heart from Gee would be the clearest signal yet that the team has truly broken with its past.

The sporting side of the roster is also in transition. Several riders have left in recent months, among them Pascal Ackermann, Michael Woods and Chris Froome. For years, Israel-Premier Tech had relied on signing experienced riders in the later stages of their careers, and it will be interesting to see whether that approach is now being left behind with NSN coming in.

Alongside those established departures, the biggest loss is the talented Matthew Riccitello, who has moved to Decathlon CMA CGM. At the same time, the roster is being rebuilt. Lewis Askey, Ryan Mullen and Alessandro Pinarello have already joined, and the biggest move may still be ahead. The arrival of Biniam Girmay has been widely reported, although not yet confirmed.

If the transfer is completed, Girmay would immediately become the centrepiece of NSN Cycling Team, a rider with genuine winning potential and the ability to front the next phase of the project on the road while also offering storytelling opportunities that fit naturally with NSN’s identity.

In a WorldTour dominated by nation backed teams, telecoms, supermarkets and energy companies, NSN Cycling Team stands out. The question is what NSN’s arrival actually means for the way a WorldTour team is run. Their background sits in sport and entertainment rather than traditional cycling structures, and that experience could push the project to think differently about visibility, fan engagement and commercial strategy. 

The sport has already seen how an outsider approach can shake things open. Unibet Rose Rockets showed that stepping away from the old model can lead to rapid growth and a clear identity.

Whether NSN can achieve that same kind of success is something the coming seasons will reveal. But it definitely makes the team one of the more interesting projects to follow in 2026.