America’s Newest Cycling Team Braces for Paris-Roubaix Debut

Modern Adventure rocks up to the start line on Sunday as one of the surprise teams to race cycling’s most brutal race at Paris-Roubaix.

After a solid spring filled with breakaways and podiums, the team snagged a rare first-year invitation to the prestigious monument contested over 55km of harsh cobblestones.

The link is obvious via co-owner George Hincapie, a 17-time Roubaix veteran who knows every jagged stone between Compiègne and the velodrome.

That pedigree helped open the door. What the team does with it remains TBD.

“Obviously, it’s a huge honor for us to be invited to this race, and like I’m just telling the guys we’ve got to fight like hell,” Hincapie said Saturday. “This is going to be one of the hardest days of their lives, but it could be one of the most rewarding days of their lives as well.”

Modern Adventure’s unique jersey has been animating the spring classics, and they’re hoping for more Sunday at Paris-Roubaix.

No one inside the team is pretending a win is on the table against the likes of Tadej Pogačar.

The targets are more realistic, like making the early move, or, if the stars align, landing a rider inside the top 20.

“It’s important for us to just stay as focused as possible, and focus on the basics of what got them here,” Hincapie said. “Even though it’s the hardest race in the world, the basics are still going to be super important throughout the day. So just trying to keep them calm, not as nervous as I am. That’s the main thing.”

‘Hardest race in the world’

Developing young talent is at the heart of the first-year project, and only one of the team’s roster had even started Roubaix before.

Hincapie said the team’s young vibe is embodied in 19-year-old Ezra Caudell.

“They’re excited. Ezra, he’s full of power and no fear, which is the ingredients for a good Paris-Roubaix,” Hincapie said. “I was in that same position in 1994. I think he’s got a very similar perspective right now. I’m just hoping for good luck for him and I hope he has a great day.”

Hincapie defended the team’s invite despite some suggestions that Paris-Roubaix might be too much, too soon for the startup team.

“I thought the same thing when we got the call in January, ‘Are we ready for a race like Roubaix’?” Hincapie said. “But after seeing how the guys have ridden, I am very comfortable that we’re here, and there are a lot more costs and logistics doing this race. We’re super proud to be here.”

Modern Adventure’s been picking up other high-profile invites across its debut season, including a WorldTour stage-race debut at the Volta a Catalunya last month.

“Obviously, we’re a smaller team, so we have modest goals, but we think we can have somebody in the breakaway,” Hincapie said. “And then Ben Oliver has been riding really well, so hopefully he can sneak into a top 20 finish. That’d be a huge accomplishment for us.”

The team will also be ramping up its North American program in the coming weeks, but Sunday will be something special for the team, even if it’s going to be painful.