{"id":393478,"date":"2026-01-27T17:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393478\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T17:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:11:13","slug":"i-wasnt-really-enjoying-being-pro-british-olympian-finds-new-life-at-us-team-modern-adventure-pro-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393478\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I wasn’t really enjoying being pro’ \u2013 British Olympian finds new life at US team Modern Adventure Pro Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six months ago, Mark Stewart<\/a> was ready to give up his career as a pro road cyclist and join a lower level Japanese team. He was done with the \u201cpenny pinching\u201d of ProTeams, frustrated by a lack of professionalism and the uncertainty of sponsors in cycling\u2019s second tier. \u201cI sort of thought, \u2018If this is being pro, count me out\u2019,\u201d he says. Besides, Japan seemed fun \u2013 he won a race there last June.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically had a contract and just needed to sign it from the Japanese team,\u201d Stewart says. \u201cAnd then Riley Pickrell, a training mate, said to me last August, \u2018Hey, I think Modern Adventure<\/a> are essentially looking for you. They\u2019ve got two more spots to fill, and they\u2019re looking for an English-speaking, experienced rider who’s good for the culture and will take minimum wage\u2019,\u201d he adds with a laugh. \u201cLiterally, within a week, I had signed.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An Olympian and double World Championships silver medallist on the track, Stewart will ride for the next two years as part of the new US ProTeam founded by former Tour de France<\/a> pro George Hincapie. The 30-year-old Scot will make his debut for the team this Tuesday at the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia. Already, he says, the Modern Adventure Pro Cycling set-up<\/a> feels like a \u201cbreath of fresh air\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s under-promising and over-delivering,\u201d Stewart says. \u201cOn the phone calls, we chatted mainly about culture and shared values, to be honest, and they\u2019re really heavy on these first two years creating that. They\u2019re not talking about results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s their understanding that if they set the right standard and the right culture, the results will be a byproduct. And I hope they\u2019re right, because it\u2019s really fun to be part of it. They\u2019re so professional, they\u2019re so nice, they really care about your wellbeing, and right now, there\u2019s no apparent ego.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he speaks to Cycling Weekly, Stewart has just come out of a values workshop on a team camp in Girona, Spain. When he first joined the squad last year, he was impressed by the owners\u2019 honesty about their past; founder Hincapie and head of performance Bobby Julich both admitted to doping during their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith George and Bobby, they stood up on that first team camp and acknowledged their past,\u201d Stewart says. \u201cThis was just to the riders, and said, \u2018Hey, listen, we are not hiding from it. We acknowledge what we did, we\u2019re not hiding from it, we\u2019re here to talk, and we will answer any questions you guys have got.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think that won a lot of the riders\u2019 respect and set the tone for this team going forward of honest and integrity, which has been really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hincapie, likewise, recently told Cycling Weekly he has \u201cnothing to hide<\/a>\u201d about his past.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Robin\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Modern Adventure Pro Cycling)<\/p>\n

This season marks Stewart\u2019s fifth as a pro cyclist. He previously rode for New Zealand team Bolton Equities Black Spoke, which collapsed in 2023<\/a>, and spent the last two years at Solution Tech-Vini Fantini \u2013 \u201cI wasn\u2019t really enjoying being pro, if you will, with the Italians,\u201d he says. He is also a member of the GB track squad, a programme he was initially dropped from in 2020<\/a>, but rejoined in 2024 and competed at the Paris Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think because I was excited to go to this Japanese team, and because I\u2019ve been through the ringer \u2013 I lost my job in 2020 with British Cycling and just worked normal jobs<\/a> [ed. Stewart worked as a dog walker and lifeguard<\/a>] \u2013 it\u2019s not something that scares me: I don\u2019t live in fear of where the next contract will come from,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can ride your bike until you die. It doesn\u2019t matter if you get paid for it or not. My grandad rode his bike until he was 97, and he seemed pretty happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s role at Modern Adventure will come as part of the team\u2019s lead-out train. He has asked specifically not to be given his own opportunities to try and win this season, preferring instead to be the \u201cright-hand man\u201d to his team-mates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent the last four years counting calories and trying to climb and do GC results, with definitely some successes, but it\u2019s not naturally where I find my strengths,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of in contrast to being a track rider, isn\u2019t it? Track\u2019s high power production and speed, and then I leave the track and I\u2019m back to counting calories and climbing mountains. I\u2019m really excited about just focusing on power production and speed from a physical aspect, and being a bit stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately after this week’s AlUla Tour, Stewart will travel to Konya, Turkey to compete at the European Track Championships.<\/p>\n

He plans to combine road and track towards the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, where he hopes to represent GB again, by which time he\u2019ll be almost 33. \u201cFrom there, I think I\u2019d start to consider retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe then, Stewart adds, he might finally make it out to Japan. \u201c[The Japanese team] were absolutely okay with [me signing for Modern Adventure]. I was honest with them the whole time,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll go and finish my career there. Japan is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six months ago, Mark Stewart was ready to give up his career as a pro road cyclist and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-393478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}