'Roubaix is such a chaotic race' - Substantial strides at Paris-Roubaix Juniors give Enzo Hincapie confidence for new season with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe development team

It's not often that sixth-place and seventh-place finishes get noticed, but when you are Enzo Hincapie and fighting for top spots at junior editions of Paris-Roubaix and E3 Saxo Classic, these results signal the wins are close.

Hincapie, the oldest child of retired WorldTour pro George Hincapie, made significant strides at these two junior Spring Classics from a year ago, finishing in the front group this year at E3 Saxo Classic and improving 89 spots at Paris-Roubaix with sixth in the highly competitive race a week ago.

"I think one of the main differences was just the experience. I've already done it before, and had a year of junior racing, it wasn't too good of a season the year before," Hincapie told Cyclingnews.

"Still, it led me to learn how the peloton moves, and I was able to take that in for pretty much every race this year. It's helped a lot, positioning-wise, and making the right decisions."

When the 17-year-old was announced in January as joining the German U19 team Grenke-Auto Eder, the development programme for WorldTour squad Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, he was called "a complete racer" by Director of Development Tim Meeusen.

By the age of 16, Hincapie had already won five US junior road national titles, his first pair in 2022 for ONTO Racing. He repeated with a road race title the next two years in the 15-16 division and took the silver, then gold, in the time trial. In those events alone, he demonstrated the versatility that Meeusen saw.

Away from US Nationals, he caught a lot of attention by winning the amateur finals race at Athens Twilight Criterium, beating riders twice his age in a field of 70. Last year with the US national team, he gained more international experience, winning a stage at the three-day 2.1-level Internationale Cottbuser Junioren-Etappenfahrt in Germany. But the high level of junior racing in Europe was a sure bet, even for a US national champion with a solid pedigree.

"Especially in junior racing, it's always pretty challenging. It's very crazy, and it's never really controlled," Hincapie told Cyclingnews. "I feel like with every race I've done this year, I keep learning and making better decisions and being in better places at the right time. But yeah, I think it all comes down to just trying to learn as much as I can with every race.

"Roubiax is such a chaotic race. My teammates had bad luck, and that's how the sport is sometimes."

He said that at his second time at Paris-Roubaix Juniors, he marked as many of the attacks as he could, riders competing in the colours of their home nations as a Nations Cup event. European junior road champion Karl Herzog of Germany and Julius Birkedal of Norway were among the aggressive riders he chased, both also part of his trade team, and Herzog in a leading late break with Dutch rider Thijs Wiersma.

"For that race, I was racing for the win or a podium, so I didn't want to let anyone go away," he recalled. "But there were already two guys up the road, and then another [attack] happened, and then I just took a gamble and also attacked myself. I didn't have quite the legs to get in contact with the front group. But I was really close.

"There wasn't much cooperation, so I kind of just went all-in to try and catch this front group. It was all or nothing. I happened to get caught by the group behind, and two or three people came around me in the sprint."

One of the riders swooping around was Birkedal, who finished in fourth, part of the group of 11 who were just two seconds behind winner Wiersma and runner-up Herzog.

"Just to be able to make the attacks and make the front groups whenever I wanted, it's definitely a major improvement from last Roubaix, where I never really saw the front event I wanted to. It was super fun [this year], I really enjoyed it."

Earlier in March, Hincapie finished on the podium alongside teammate and race winner Birkedal at the Gran Premi Les Franqueses. The US rider is inching closer to a win this year.

Hincapie was home in South Carolina this week, hoping to race another time in Athens, Georgia, but pulled out due to sickness. He will travel back to Europe for a block of racing before US Road Nationals, lining up the two-day Grand Prix West Bohemia for Grenke-Auto Eder, then another Nations Cup round at the Junior Peace Race in Czechia.

"The Peace race is a big goal of mine, and after that I'll do Flanders Juniors, also another big goal," he said. Then he was eager to get back to the US Road Nationals in June.

"For the time trial, I can really push myself to the extreme limit. For the road race, positioning helps a lot and making the right decisions, knowing who to follow. I favour the one-day races."