Former Gaza hostage Ofer Kalderon was welcomed by Israel’s Premier Tech Pro Cycling Team as the team’s special guest at the final stage of the 2025 Tour de France in Paris on Sunday.
“I’m still in shock from this moment. I’ve never been to Paris, certainly not on a bicycle. Everything looks so big to me… so wide… so many people… everything is a lot. I’m so emotional to be here with the team,” Kalderon, a longtime cycling enthusiast, said.
“But I’m also torn: this joy can’t be complete because, alongside all these emotions, it’s very hard to deal with what’s happening to me and to all the people of Israel, that we still have hostages in Gaza, our soldiers are there, and some are being killed. So nothing will be complete until they’re all back home. It’s time to end this story and bring everyone back.”
One hundred days into the Israel-Hamas war, IPT team owner Sylvan Adams previously organized a global cycling event in honor of the Gaza hostages, making a promise that he and Kalderon would one day ride side-by-side at the Tour de France.
“This is an incredible moment for Ofer and all of us, but this victory will not be complete until they all return home, now!” Adams said.
Kalderon was released in the 2025 hostage-ceasefire deal
Kalderon, a 54-year-old French-Israeli citizen and a father of four, spent 15 months in Hamas captivity after being abducted from his family home on Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside two of his children.
He was released in January 2025 as part of the first phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Ofer’s children Sahar, then-16, and Erez, then-12, were released as part of the November 2023 deal with Hamas.