“I cannot wait any longer”, Guy Niv said after the confirmation that the Sibiu Tour is taking place in the third week of July. “I think it is going to 
be to soooooo good!”
“It felt so weird to receive a flight ticket in my inbox. It is something that normally happens so often, but now we had so many months without it.”
The Israeli climber is one of the riders that is supposed to race the Tour in Rumania and he is – clearly – super excited.
To Guy Sagiv, also part of the ISN line-up for Sibiu, it feels like a ‘new season in the same year’. “It is a whole new experience for everyone, and I am excited to get out there and race.”
Matthias Brändle, the former World Hour Record holder, wants to kick off his ‘season’ with a win. “The Sibiu Tour starts with a prologue that suits me very well. I want to win that race.”
The Austrian time trial specialist has never been to Rumania before and given the fact that his Austrian training buddies from the Bora-team will also travel to Sibiu, he would like to be racing competitively against him there. After the Sibiu Tour, Brändle is supposed to go to the Tour de Pologne.
Talking about winning races, that’s the only thing on Rudy Barbier’s mind as well. The French sprinter aims for stage successes in Sibiu. “I want to kick off the restart of the season as good as the start of the season back in January”, the winner of the first stage in the Vuelta a San Juan says.
The fifth rider who should be going to the Sibiu Tour is Matteo Badilatti, who earlier this year raced in the Tour Colombia (13th in GC) and the Tour of Antalya (15th in GC). “It is such a nice feeling to know that I will see my ISN family soon again”, the Swiss climber says. Omer Goldstein, the sixth and final rider, agrees with Badilatti.
Niv also knows that the Sibiu Tour will be one of those moments where the ISN team management will get indications about the fitness of riders, especially of those who are on the shortlist of competing in a Grand Tour like the Tour de France. “However”, he says, “in the end we are there as a team, to work together and to achieve the team’s goals. Just like any other team, I think ISN is extremely excited and motivated to restart the season well.”
