Baptism of fire: Behind Modern Adventure's Paris-Roubaix debut

On the night before Paris-Roubaix, George Hincapie had a confession to make to his Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team. Back in January, when ASO first sounded him out about a wildcard spot at the Hell of the North, Hincapie’s first instinct had been to refuse the offer.

His reasoning was sound. The team was just setting out on its first season with a roster built on promise rather than experience, and Paris-Roubaix hadn’t even been a consideration when Hincapie started lobbying race organisers for invitations last autumn. 

Getting the nod from ASO to race the AlUla Tour was already a success for Hincapie, hence the team owner's surprise when they came back to him with a more prestigious invitation before his riders had even turned a pedal in anger.

“I didn’t say anything to them, but my first response to myself was ‘No, we’re not ready,’” Hincapie tells Domestique. “In fact, that was part of my speech to the team the day before the race. I was like, ‘Guys, I’ve got to say sorry.’

“I was initially reluctant in accepting this invitation, because I didn’t know them that well and I didn’t know their capabilities exactly. But fortunately, after meeting with all our staff and riders, I said to myself, ‘Who am I to take this huge opportunity away from my riders?’ And it was a great decision, because they had proven their worth in every race before Roubaix, and I told them they deserved to be here. They were more than ready for this.”

Even so, at a race like Paris-Roubaix, every invited team feels a certain pressure to justify their inclusion. Modern Adventure’s objectives for the race were twofold – get a man in the early break and then get as many riders as possible to the velodrome in Roubaix before the gates shut.

The first part of that task was easier said than done; the realities of 2020s cycling had it so. Hincapie lined up seventeen times at Paris-Roubaix as a rider, but he never encountered anything quite like the opening on Sunday, where the bunch averaged 53kph for the first two hours. Not surprisingly, there was no early break.

“I guess the days of a significant breakaway going at Roubaix are pretty much over, but we tried really hard, so it wasn’t a lack of trying or not paying attention,” says Hincapie. 

Once the race hit the pavé, the survival game began. Paris-Roubaix is a race better experienced than explained, but Modern Adventure tried to do what they could for their riders beforehand. 

Hincapie joined them on two recons, one after Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and another after the GP Denain, while his staff compiled video analysis of all the cobbled sectors so their squad – which included six debutants – were well brief ahead of their Sunday in Hell. 

“I just tried to share some different technique things and general awareness of things that are super important throughout Roubaix,” Hincapie says. “Our staff did an amazing job, so we had a tonne of information, more than I ever had as a pro. Then Factor gave us all-new frame sets for it, SRAM gave us all-new groupsets, Michelin came out with prototype tyres… 

“The way we prepared was above and beyond expectations – but obviously, once they get to the race, it's a completely different thing.”

Sitting in the team car for Paris-Roubaix alongside sports director Ty Magner was also something completely different for Hincapie. Fourteen years on from his last appearance as a rider, the carnage of the pavé was unchanged, and it wasn’t any less onerous in the team car. 

“It’s very stressful,” Hincapie says. “My co-owner of the team was in the car with us, and I said I don’t think I’ll do Paris-Roubaix 17 times in the car, it’s way too stressful…

“Ty Magner was driving and it’s such chaotic driving that I did the talking in the radio, so I had to go from reading the notes that Ben Day put together and then fill in my own sort of notes just from experience. I had to be ultra aware and pay ultra attention the whole time.”

All the while, of course, Hincapie’s son Enzo was racing in the junior Paris-Roubaix, where he was in the mix for victory all the way to the velodrome. The 17-year-old eventually placed sixth in the group just behind winner Thijs Viersma. 

“Yeah, so I was texting back and forth with my wife trying to get information on his race at the same time,” Hincapie says. “It was just a lot going on and super stressful, so I was exhausted at the end of the day.”

Nobody emerges unscathed from Paris-Roubaix, but five of Modern Adventure’s seven starters made it to the finish. Ben Oliver, Cole Kessler, Robin Carpenter, Mark Stewart and 19-year-old Ezra Caudell were all debutants, but they all reached the velodrome after the fastest-ever edition of Paris-Roubaix.

“When they came to the bus afterwards, you just saw how dishevelled they were, just mud, dirt everywhere, just completely exhausted, but there was also a huge sense of achievement and accomplishment and respect for the race, so just seeing that in their faces was a highlight for me, for sure,” says Hincapie, who saw some aptitude for the rigours of Roubaix in some of his riders.

“The young guys like Ezra and Cole were super pumped to be there. Ezra’s only 19 years old, and it reminded me a lot of my first time I did Roubaix – just full of power, but not much experience, but also no fear, which is all you need in cycling once you refine those skills. He had a bunch of mechanical issues, but he still made it to the finish line with a big smile on his face, so that was really important. 

“Then there’s Ben Oliver, who was racing criteriums last year, and he was right up there in the top 50 in one of his first races in Europe. You could see the guy’s built for a race like that, so I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the years to come.”

Hincapie’s own Paris-Roubaix debut came back in the dramatic edition of 1994, which was played out in horrific conditions and became the benchmark by which subsequent editions were measured for at least a generation. Sunday’s tumultuous edition, capped by Wout van Aert’s redemptive sprint win over Tadej Pogačar, might prove a similar landmark in Paris-Roubaix history.

“Oh, 1994 lit a huge fire in me,” Hincapie says. “At the start, when it was snowing, I rolled up in shorts, and my teammates were like, ‘What's wrong with you?’ But I was just so excited to be there, I didn’t let the weather or the hoopla of the race actually affect me. I just was there full of gratitude and excitement. 

“And I saw that in a lot of our guys’ faces. They were so pumped to be there. Everybody was really honoured to be part of that, and they also wanted to prove that we deserved to be there.”