Modern Adventure Pro Cycling spent months telling the cycling world what it hoped to become. In its debut season, the team followed that promise with results.
An invitation to Paris–Roubaix put the fledgling UCI ProTeam on one of the sport’s biggest stages. Early success also included a top-five finish at the AlUla Tour and two stage victories and the overall title for Ben Oliver at the Tour de Wallonie.
The results gave Modern Adventure an encouraging start to its well-publicised "five years till Tour de France" timeline.
At the revived Philadelphia Cycling Classic, Cycling Weekly caught up with Hincapie and performance director Bobby Julich to reflect on the team’s early progress and discuss what comes next.
From mid-ride idea to top step of a podium
The team roster is projected to grow to 24-25 guys in 2027
Before there was a roster, a race calendar or a victory in Belgium, there was a conversation on a bike ride.
Julich traces the beginning of Modern Adventure to February 2025, when he and Hincapie began tossing around the idea of a new American professional team. By April, the idea had become a full-blown project with a deadline: they had to assemble a team before the next season.
"It’s been a crazy ride," Julich said. "All of a sudden it came to fruition, and we’re like, ‘Man, we’ve got to put a team together'."
The speed suited Hincapie better than Julich.
"I’m kind of a measure-twice, cut-once sort of guy," Julich said. "George is like, ‘Let’s just go pedal to the metal'."
Modern Adventure moved from an idea to a functioning ProTeam in a matter of months.
"Starting from scratch and seeing where we are now – it's been a hockey stick, a rocket ship, and we've been out over our skis quite a bit," Julich said.
"We went to Paris-Roubaix, and we had eight guys take the start. We only had one non-finisher. I would have been happy if one guy would have finished within the time limit," - Bobby Julich
"It's been a wild year," Hincapie echoed, who spent much of 2025 travelling, meeting race organisers and selling them on a team that did not yet exist.
The response far exceeded his expectations. Modern Adventure secured enough invitations that its first challenge was not finding races but deciding which ones it could realistically manage.
The team opened its season in the Middle East at the AlUla Tour and UAE Tour before moving through an ambitious international calendar. The early enthusiasm eventually had to give way to a more measured approach.
"We really had to slow down and start saying, 'Okay, we actually can't do all of this stuff'," Hincapie said. From there, the team prioritised races where it believed it could make an impact.
Paris-Roubaix was such a race. When the invite came, Hincapie called it "hugely exciting," and, more importantly, a great showcasing opportunity.
"It'll be a big test for all the team, but we'll continue to approach it with diligent preparation and as a collective unit," he said at the time.
The race far exceeded Hicapie or Julich’s expectations.
"We went to Paris-Roubaix, and we had eight guys take the start," Julich said. "We only had one non-finisher. I would have been happy if one guy would have finished within the time limit."
The successes continued to come. Modern Adventure riders netted top-10 stage finishes at the Tour of Türkiye, a stage podium at the Arctic Race of Norway, fourth at Classic Grand Besançon Doubs and a top-five overall in TPC en Nouvelle-Aquitaine. But perhaps the biggest breakthrough came in June at the Tour de Wallonie, where Oliver won two stages, the points classification and the overall title.
"We were way more advanced than I would have ever imagined for the first year of the team," Hincapie said. "I'm happy, overwhelmed, with how well it's gone.
Success raises expectations
At the Tour de Wallonie, Be Oliver scored two stage wins and the overall title.
Hincapie's original benchmarks for the first two seasons were deliberately modest: arrive prepared, race as a unit, make an impression and begin building an audience. Results were secondary.
The riders exceeded initial expectations, which gave them confidence, but also changed targets for the 2027 season.
Julich is wary of allowing early success to distort the process. Many of Modern Adventure’s riders had not previously raced at this level, and professional cycling rarely rewards progress in a straight line.
"It's not a linear sport. I think everybody that's ridden their bike, they can be on the top of the mountain one day and on the bottom of the crap heap the next day. So it's kind of trying to balance that with guys that really have not ever experienced cycling at this level," cautioned Julich.
His role, as he sees it, is to manage those swings while giving the riders "the support, the confidence and the factor of fun" needed to sustain a professional career.
The same balance is shaping the team’s planning. Modern Adventure wants to build upon its first-year results without abandoning the developmental approach that helped produce them.
After Philadelphia, parts of the roster were bound for the Tour of Britain and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and de Montréal. Races in Luxembourg, Croatia and Malaysia will round out a schedule that continues to take the team across several continents in its first nine months.
"We got a good six weeks of racing left, and all over the world. And hopefully we continue to just improve upon our successes," Hincapie said..
When asked about the 2027 calendar, Hincapie was not shy about realistic expectations and bringing on riders to keep the forward momentum.
"Now that we know how everybody works well together, we're gonna probably bring on two to four new guys for the team, and the roster will be about 24 to 25 guys," he shared.
"Just trying to build on what we've started already, just bringing in a bit more experience, and start focusing more on results."
And Julich concurred with the approach.
"Let's continue to build that foundation, and let's continue to support these kids as well as we can," he said. "We are gonna get bigger. We know that."
A wild (card) ride to the Tour de France
Modern Adventure Pro Cycling at the AlUla Tour
Bigger ambitions require a bigger budget. Modern Adventure’s long-term objective remains the Tour de France, but the team is still several steps, and potentially several years, away.
Promotion to the WorldTour would bring automatic access to the sport’s biggest races, but earning a place at that level requires resources and UCI points that Modern Adventure does not yet possess. Julich considers a wildcard invitation the more plausible route to a first Grand Tour.
"We don't have the budget of the WorldTour team, so we don't have the depth of the WorldTour teams. That's gonna come. So I would think that if there was a Grand Tour in our future, we would have to be a wild card," explained Julich.
The next WorldTour licensing cycle, in year three of the Modern Adventure project, offers a possible decision point rather than a firm promotion target. Hincapie expects the pressure to increase in years three through five, when the team’s results, funding and original Tour timeline will begin to converge.
A significant new sponsor could accelerate that progression. "One call or one interested CEO, everything changes really quickly," Hincapie said.
For now, the team has the security of a six-year commitment from its principal backer and a long-term relationship with equipment partner, Factor. That runway is central to Hincapie’s willingness to build another team, allowing Modern Adventure to develop without immediately staking its survival on a single season’s results.
More money would also bring more obligations. Julich knows that larger sponsors place additional demands on riders and staff, from appearances to marketing commitments. Growth, in other words, carries its own costs.
Modern Adventure is still only in the opening stage of its plan. Yet a project conceived during a ride in early 2025 has already reached Paris–Roubaix, won a European stage race and begun contemplating how to improve in year two.
The next WorldTour licensing cycle, in year three of the Modern Adventure project, offers a possible entry point. Hincapie expects the pressure to increase in years three through five, when the team’s results, funding and original Tour timeline will begin to converge.
A significant new sponsor could accelerate that progression, however. "One call or one interested CEO, everything changes really quickly," Hincapie said.
For now, the team has the security of a six-year commitment from its principal backer and a long-term relationship with Factor. That runway was central to Hincapie’s willingness to build the team in the first place, as it lets the programme develop without immediately staking its survival on a single season’s results.
Seven months into its debut campaign, Modern Adventure already far exceeded its founders’ expectations. And there is no urgency to accelerate the Tour de France timeline, nor any indication that its original ambition has dimmed.
"We're very driven, and when you have a goal, you know, it's okay to shoot for the stars," Julich said.