'A trial by fire' - George Hincapie's Modern Adventure hope team spirit will make up for lack of Classics experience as their cobbled debut at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne approaches

Sitting in the hotel lobby of an anonymous, if comfortable, motel right on the side of one of Flanders' major highways, watching the traffic thrum past and the rain drum down incessantly outside on a miserable Friday afternoon, is not exactly the recommended formula for boosting spirits for a small team of dark horse contenders to initiate their cobbled Classics debut.

But to judge from the upbeat answers, laced with good humour, provided by the riders in new US ProTeam Modern Adventure when asked about their prospects as a wildcard team for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday, that's actually not going to be a problem.

For one thing, the riders' current view from the hotel across a rain-lashed series of muddy potato fields and two lanes of evening traffic in each direction actually means one very important thing: A start-up American squad in its rookie year has made it to some of the leading European bike races on the calendar.

So with that landmark achievement already in the bag, Modern Adventure are already more than delighted simply to be there.

Not even the lack of experience amongst all of their riders - just one has ridden Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne before - can dampen that enthusiasm, it seems. As various riders tell Cyclingnews, their expectations were that it would take them several years to get this far up the cycling hierarchy and get into these top-flight races. In fact, it's taken Modern Adventure less than eight weeks.

Now they are there, much sooner than expected, having a former cobbled Classics specialist like George Hincapie as team manager obviously serves as inspiration from a historical perspective for the American riders. But they are also very aware that it's going to be up to them, individually, to try to make as big an impact as possible on Kuurne itself and then leading up to and including Paris-Roubaix in early April.

Actually battling to win Roubaix right now is surely way too big an ask and in the era of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) that's a fairly common issue. Rather Modern Adventure will be hoping to put on as good a show as they can, from Kuurne onwards.

The great leap forward

Fortunately, the team are bursting with enthusiasm to do exactly that. "It is pretty incredible considering where I was two years or even just a year ago to make a jump to races like this," Sean Christian, the 23-year-old who raced in Belgium as a junior pre-COVID and then came over for a couple of seasons for kermesse blocks, said.

"Some would consider Kuurne a Classic, others a semi-classic, but whatever it is, it is something a lot of kids dream about. To be able to finally race one of these events is pretty special."

"I was stoked. I don't know too much about the history of road cycling in these races, but I knew they were big races because I had heard of them," his New Zealand teammate Ben Oliver added.

"So to get to start on a race like that is huge for the team and for myself too, to really just throw myself straight in there and see what I am made of."

It certainly feels like a voyage into the unknown for almost everybody in the Modern Adventure line-up. Oliver's previous experience of Belgian cobbles was "a couple of kermesses and a week with some friends last year when I came here for fun," while Christian's own learning curve is a similarly solo effort because when in the junior Belgian team, he was more riding as a young kid, "and nobody was really teaching us much."

"It is definitely going to be a question of me finding my feet and against the pros, it is going to be a trial by fire. No one is going to be in the peloton telling me which line to follow, I am just going to have to learn by following," Christian said.

Christian may be feeling his way on the road, but thanks to his junior days in the country, he does know exactly why these races are so important in Belgium.

"There was a lot of excitement when I was racing in the team about these races. All my teammates would go out and watch; this is the pinnacle of cycling for them. As Belgians, it is the dream they all strive for. This is like the motherland of racing over here so they definitely put a big emphasis on all these races."

As for Hincapie's own success there, Christian noted: "For me, who will never win a Grand Tour, it is kind of cool to have a boss like George who specialised in all the Classics – and again he is a bigger guy like me, although he did the Grand Tours as well – and to kind of follow his wheel tracks."

Regarding the nitty-gritty of racing Classics, although Christian has won events like the Gran Premio New York City or a stage of the well-established Tour de Beauce in Canada, he said it would be a struggle to find anything in North America to compare with what they will be tackling come Sunday afternoon in West Flanders.

"There is nothing quite like it in the US; Classics racing is definitely something I picked up when I came here. In the US it is mainly criteriums, so that is shorter races, and even the road races we do have are wide-open roads. So nothing in America can compare to these small farm roads in Belgium."

The learning curve

Oliver’s closest experience to cobbled racing is likely his 2023 victory at the semi-off-road Gravel and Tar Classic in New Zealand. However, the terrain back home is arguably more similar to the rutted farm tracks of Paris-Roubaix than the better-tended challenges found in the rural lanes of West Flanders.

"Gravel and Tar is an awesome race alright. In New Zealand, it is one of our only one-day UCI races, and it is actually pretty gnarly," Oliver said. "There are about 50km or 60km of gravel sectors that can be quite rough, so you have got to be able to ride a bike.

"I have come from a mountain bike background, so I am slightly more comfortable putting power down when things get rough. But here you have got skinnier tyres, so that is something to adjust to, learning the traction limits. In any case, I feel comfortable out there and we will have a good few days of recon as well."

It is fair to say that Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne is the starting point of a steep learning curve that culminates in Paris-Roubaix in early April. As Christian said, it is the kind of challenge that will help raise the team's collective level.

"Everybody knows how Roubaix goes; it is the Hell of the North," Christian said. "So hearing that as a first-year team we are taking part is really cool because we have pretty low expectations these early years as far as results go. It is mainly about learning how to ride together and getting that experience."

"But the sooner we do these big races, the sooner we can target them for results. So even getting to do it the first year is super special, because it takes a year away from our reaching those higher expectations."

While George Hincapie serves as a source of inspiration, the lack of experience within the Modern Adventure roster for these Classics is immense. Of the seven riders taking part in Kuurne, only one has raced it before. Canadian sprinter Riley Pickrell was a DNF in 2024 but finished the race on his second attempt, and also competed in Le Samyn in 2023.

Both Christian and Oliver are approaching Sunday’s race with an eye on the bigger picture.

"It is definitely a nothing-to-lose scenario," Oliver said. "But in road racing, strange things happen, so you would not write off seeing our boys at the front. Who knows what we can do? At the end of the day, though, it is just another race, and I do not think you go to any race in Europe without having hard competition. So yeah, there are some stars here, but bike racing is bike racing."

"For most of us, it is going to be pretty big stepping up to the line with guys like Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)," Christian recognised. "But last year's Kuurne finished in a 90-man bunch sprint, so it is a little better as a start than those races that break up a lot more. It might be a little more palatable."

The team have done their homework, completing a full recon of the course earlier this week. Whilst Christian knows race speeds will be higher and positioning will be a battle - "plus as a smaller team, we will likely get shuffled back," he added ruefully - he noted that many of the roads for Kuurne were wider than he expected.

"There are a lot more two-lane roads and the hills end with 50km or 60km to go, so it is a good race because we could do something as well. We will be riding for our sprinter, and it will be great if he finishes in the lead group. It would be easier if we have guys in the front group for when the race comes up."

"So definitely there will be a few of us on breakaway duty and hopefully we will get one of us in there. And the rest of us will just saddle up for a hard day on the pedals."

The bigger picture

As for the Modern Adventure line-up for Kuurne, Christian is part of a contingent who have just come across from a tough introduction to the 2026 season at the AlUla Tour and UAE Tour, while others like New Zealand’s Ben Oliver have made it to Kuurne from the Vuelta a Andalucia.

While Oliver took a third place in Andalucia on stage 1, which was a morale boost, the whole team, Christian said, have been trying hard in the first part of 2026 to build a presence in the peloton by "getting off the front and riding in the wind whenever we could."

"My fitness definitely went up in those races. I have heard all those stories that you 'detrain' at the UAE Tour, but I think I only did under 200 watts average on one stage; the rest were much higher, so it was definitely not true for me."

Beyond what they will achieve with that honed condition in the Classics this spring, it is what Modern Adventure can do to help provide a much-needed pathway for young US and Canadian racers in particular that makes it a special opportunity, Christian said.

"For us, when I was coming up, it was pretty bleak with our options in terms of opportunities; unless you were a WorldTour standout, there was not really a place for you to go," Christian said. "So having a team that is giving you the opportunity to do these races is pretty special."

"It is a huge deal, and the support we have got already is great," Oliver said. His own personal background — he has an American girlfriend and has spent several years in the US — means he can appreciate the importance of an American squad like Modern Adventure racing regularly at a high level in Europe.

"We already know how big it is for America to have a team at this level and to be able to try and compete with the European teams. For this team to almost come out of nowhere and to start as strong as we have is awesome."

"We will see what happens, but it is very exciting to be at this level and especially as an American. We have not seen this many Americans at this level for a long time," Christian concluded.

"So to be almost that first generation back is very exciting and I think there will be a lot of eyes on us from America in these races. We have got big expectations to live up to, but I do not get too nervous before races these days. Mainly, I would say we just have a feeling of excitement."

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