U.S. street racing legend George Hincapie is launching a brand new skilled biking staff with ambitions to succeed in the Tour de France inside 5 years. The staff, named Fashionable Journey Professional Biking, will start competitors in 2026, with the intent to register as a UCI ProTeam.
Greater than a staff, Hincapie says it is an effort to re-ignite American biking by a long-term platform for U.S. riders to compete on the sport’s highest ranges.
“I’m very excited, nervous, anxious, to be embarking on this mission and most of all, very passionate to be beginning what we really feel like may very well be a renaissance of American biking,” mentioned Hincapie. “We hope to be America’s Dream Staff, racing within the Tour de France in 5 years or much less.”
2022 US Highway Champion Joey Rosskopf
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
The Who’s Who
The staff is a ardour mission backed by a powerhouse solid of American biking veterans and high-profile companions. Hincapie and his brother Richard are co-owners, alongside longtime pal and enterprise guide Dustin More durable. Former WorldTour execs Alex Howes and Joey Rosskopf, together with former US home professional Ty Magner, will function staff administrators. And Bobby Julich, an Olympic medalist and Tour de France podium contender, joins as efficiency coach.
Fashionable Journey, a Portland-based journey firm based by Luis Vargas, is the staff’s title sponsor and a co-founding companion.
“When George and Dustin approached me about this chance, it was a simple sure,” mentioned Vargas. He sees a deep alignment between the staff and his firm’s mission: “The biking staff and Fashionable Journey is the Venn diagram that within the center is big. It is about braveness. It is about saying sure, and it is about happening a journey.”
Issue Bikes is the fabric sponsor, with the model’s inventive director David Millar, himself a former Tour de France stage winner, personally concerned within the mission. “This felt like one thing fully totally different,” Millar mentioned. “It’s inspiring—and for us at Issue, an amazing privilege. We will be a long-term dedication as effectively with Fashionable Journey. We wish to help them, and we wish to study from them.”
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Hincapie Sportswear, the household’s attire model, would be the official clothes sponsor.
Middle: Alex Howes, one of many three staff director of Fashionable Journey Professional Biking
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
A Dwelling for American Expertise
A key motivation behind the mission is the absence of a transparent pathway to the WorldTour for high American riders. As Hincapie and his companions see it, there’s loads of expertise in America however no centralised platform to accommodate and develop this expertise.
“I believe we’re all conscious that the American biking scene is [in] a little bit of a difficult state, however that isn’t mirrored by the riders which can be coming by,” Millar commented.
“Our high American riders are presently scattered everywhere in the WorldTour,” Hincapie mentioned. “A variety of the American followers, arguably, do not even know who they’re, as a result of they’re all on totally different groups. There is not only one staff that hosts these guys, and our objective is to get most of them underneath our umbrella.”
The staff plans to begin with a roster of 20, with no less than half of the riders coming from the U.S. Hincapie mentioned the primary 12 riders have already been provided contracts. Many are anticipated to be rising U.S. abilities who’re on the sting of breaking by in Europe.
“We’re not on the degree to rent the very best People—they’re all spoken for anyway—however we’re actually shut with about 12 riders proper now,” Hincapie mentioned.
When requested if his 16-year-old son Enzo can be becoming a member of the squad, Hincapie mentioned: “I might like to see him do his personal factor for 3 to 4 years and ideally come to us after that. However he’s going to take his personal path for now.”
There aren’t any present plans to area a girls’s or improvement staff, although Hincapie did not rule it out, stating: “Finally, it could be superb to have a improvement or girls’s staff.”
Fashionable Journey Professional Biking will primarily deal with street racing, however the calendar will embody gravel occasions as effectively.
“Gravel is rising tremendously. It is crucial to manufacturers like Issue and our different manufacturers to take part in these races,” Hincapie mentioned.
David Millar and Bobby Julich share amusing. Each are concerned within the mission
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Constructing for the long run
Hincapie and his brother Wealthy beforehand ran the Hincapie Racing Staff from 2012 till 2020. It was a revered improvement programme, serving to launch the careers of riders like Joey Rosskopf and TJ Eisenhart. However its limitation, Hincapie mentioned, was the short-term sponsorships and a year-to-year operational mannequin.
In distinction, Fashionable Journey Professional Biking is structured round a multi-year dedication and a transparent trajectory. “I really want a long-term dedication so as to construct a powerful basis,” mentioned Hincapie. “I could not work the best way I had earlier than… I needed a long-term plan and a long-term dedication from my companions.”
That lengthy view, he mentioned, was key to securing each investor and sponsor backing.
The typical WorldTour staff operates on a price range of roughly $25 to $28 million per yr. When requested how he deliberate to boost that degree of capital inside 5 years, Hincapie remained optimistic.
“By creating the imaginative and prescient that we’re, we’re beginning to create… the reception I’ve gotten from sponsors, companions, folks within the staff has been overwhelming,” Hincapie mentioned. “We haven’t even began in search of that degree of funding but. However my doorways are being knocked on already, so we’re assured that we are going to get there when we have to get there.”
Funding apart, storytelling and creating fandom is integral to the staff’s success, Vargas commented.
“We wish to be an inspiration to the brand new technology of American biking,” he added. “And I believe we now have an actual shot at actually inspiring a complete technology of cyclists right here in the US.”
“The way in which we’re beginning off, the staff is a lot extra approachable to a whole lot of younger, aspiring cyclists… like, hey, they only signed this man that I trip with on the Tuesday night time rides. Possibly I can get there.”
And, ought to the staff achieve success in inspiring younger expertise to trip bikes, Hincapie’s pipe dream is to see a re-emergence of occasions. Recalling the numerous race alternatives he had as a creating rider, Hincapie mentioned, “We don’t have that anymore, and we hope this mission evokes organisers in the US and North America to create extra races as effectively.”
As for any involvement from his longtime pal and The Transfer podcast co-host, Lance Armstrong, Hincapie mentioned, “He isn’t concerned in any approach within the organisation or the construction of the staff,” he mentioned. “However I’ll lean on him for recommendation every so often, I’m certain.”
Hincapie is conscious that his plans are formidable and the obstacles that lie forward. However he believes the time is correct and places his confidence within the staff assembled. “We now have no disillusions that it may occur in a single day, however we now have a protracted runway to get it completed, and we all know what we have to do, and we’ll work our asses off for the following a number of years to make it occur.”
