COACH’S CORNER
DS, ISRAEL CYCLING ACADEMY
ZAK DEMPSTER
Our talent is evenly spread around the team at Israel Cycling Academy. For example, we have Taj Jones, from Australia, coming through; he’s a big 82-kilogramme sprinter, who won a couple of stages last year. He’s on the way to the WorldTour team halfway through the year. We have a really broad range though: we have a couple of Canadian kids, Mason Hollyman from Yorkshire and a couple of young Israeli kids, too. We are competitive, especially in Italy in the world-class under-23 races, and we’re up there with more than one guy. Different guys contribute more on different days, and they’re all pushing each other. We just provide the support so they can take the talent they have and get better hopefully. Jakub Bouček is a solid rider. He got ninth in the Junior World Championships road race in Harrogate, and then he was at the UCI Cycling Centre last year. Jakub is a fighter. The funny thing is, it’s not like he has huge numbers or anything like that, but then in the races he just has more. He is a solid rider. That’s a good thing, because in this day and age of covid times, and TrainingPeaks, it’s so nice to see a kid who is just a fighter in the races. He just rolls his sleeves up and gets stuck in. That’s his thing. I’m super happy with him and he has been awesome to have on the team.