The Team Sky press conference at Jerusalem's Waldorf Astoria was tense, but when Chris Froome got up to leave, at least he was greeted with a friendly face: the 2018 Giro d'Italia is the Israel Cycling Academy's Israel thanks to the efforts of chief backer Sylvain Adams, and as a courtesy, he went to introduce himself to the big man.

"I went up to him and said, 'Hi, I'm Sylvan Adams, honorary president of the Giro Big Start,' and he said, 'Yeah, I know who you are,' and we had a really nice, quiet, intimate conversation," Adams told Cycling News on Friday. 'I asked him about his impressions of Israel and how he enjoys it. Of course, he was a perfect gentleman and had nothing but compliments to offer.

Froome arrived in Israel while still awaiting a verdict after an unfavorable analysis of Salbutamol the previous year. At the start of the second stage in Haifa, Adams went to inquire about his health, and the two continued to chat at the start and finish when the race arrived in Italy.

"I bumped into him from time to time during the Giro and we hit it off," Adams said, but refuted the notion (reported again in Friday's L'Équipe) that he had played a special role in getting Froome to enter the event in the first place.

"I am the guy who had the crazy idea of bringing Giro to Israel and convinced the RCS and the Israeli government. It was really the RCS that really wanted Chris to run the Giro. Chris had already won the Tour and the Vuelta, so this was his third consecutive Grand Tour win."

Two years later, Adams' team has grown into the Israeli Startup Nation, which competes in the World Tour, and on Thursday announced its biggest transfer deal of the year, with Froome set to join the team in 2021. But despite briefly hitting it off at the 2018 Giro, Adams says he and Froome "didn't really talk" during that time.

It was also well known that Froome's contract with Team Ineos expires at the end of 2020, but despite Israel Startup Nation's growing ambitions, Adams said that until news broke in May that Froome was considering a move elsewhere He insists that there were no plans to sign the Englishman.

"No, this is a fairly recent thing, it started in the last few weeks. I don't remember exactly when it started, but it was a conversation that led to this conclusion," Adams said.

"I never dreamed that Chris Froome would be out of contract. It was expedient. We explained Chris Froome's team philosophy and atmosphere.

"I told him that ISN is really a family team, that we are very tight-knit and we care about each other. We are not a corporate team. No one is making money off of this. From my point of view it is a charity and I am the biggest investor in this venture. He liked what he heard."

Cycling News reported in May that Froome was considering a mid-season move to become the sole leader in the Tour de France. However, such a move involves the complicated issue of buying out the rest of Froome's contract, and the four-time Tour winner told Ineos' teammates last month that he and his team will ride out the year with the team.

"It was and still is clear that Chris is under contract with his current employer through December 31. Ineos has the contractual right to race until his contract with Chris Froome expires." So we will see where and how he races, whether we let him race in the Tour or in other Grand Tours, and we will see how they race.

Whatever the final race program when competition resumes in 2020, the biggest goal in Froome's first season in Israeli Startup Nation colors will be the 2021 Tour de France. In the long run, he may also be looking at other Grand Tours. Israel Startup Nation, which announced the move on Thursday, stated that Froome will ride for the team "until the end of his career."

"It is stated in the press release that Chris will be with us until he retires, so we discussed how long he feels he wants to race.

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"The exact terms of the contract are confidential, so I can't give you the exact terms, but the term was set by Chris' desire to race for many more years, and that's how we settled on the terms of the contract.

Froome turned 35 in May and has raced only once since being seriously injured in a crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné, at the UAE Tour in February. Adams has no qualms about investing in an athlete of the Briton's age - "he came into the sport quite late, so in terms of cycling, he's actually a little younger than his age" - and the Israeli Startup Nation also believes that Froome is satisfied with his recovery from the Dauphiné crash, adding.

"We will check all the prospects with whom we have discussions. That would have been the case even if Chris Froome had been younger and not lost last season to injury. Because we can watch him race his bike, but we don't have access to that information."

"We have a great sports performance director who scrutinizes all the data so we could compare Chris to the data we have on other athletes. Chris' numbers are exactly where they should be for a champion like him."

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In addition to his own seven Grand Tours, Froom is expected to serve as a mentor to the team's up-and-coming Israeli riders during his time with Israel Startup Nation. Adams, who regularly refers to himself as an "ambassador for Israel," also stressed that promoting the country, which often makes international headlines in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is an important part of the team's mission. 'They are ambassadors for their country. We use the sport as a bridge to new friendships and relationships and, of course, to represent our country to the world."

Israel Startup Nation was founded in 2015 as the Cycling Academy Continental Team by former Saxo Bank professional athlete Ran Margariot (who later left to found the Gino Bartali Youth Leadership School). under the management and with the backing of investor Ron Baron. Born and raised in Quebec, Adams was CEO of the real estate development firm Iberville before moving to Tel Aviv in 2015. An avid cyclist, Adams was approached to become a team owner in his second season.

Year after year, the team has expanded, moving up through the ranks; in 2018 and 2019, Israel Cycling Academy raced the Giro as a wild card; in 2020, the team was promoted to the World Tour and took over Katusha's license, signing Dan Martin, Andre In 2021, the team plans to add more talent for stage races around Flume, but Adams did not suggest a radical overhaul of the roster.

"We may be a couple more pieces short, but we are ready to race next year with Chris as the leader," Adams said. Tentatively, the team has at least one slot reserved for an Israeli rider, with Martin leading the 2020 Tour de France debut.

"We have a historic Tour de France coming up for us," said Adams, a contributor to Israeli cycling, who built the velodrome in Tel Aviv with the goal of emulating Britain's rapid development as a cycling nation. Says Adams, "I would say I stole a page from British cycling."