Cycling in the United States is far from its best moment. Since the dark stain produced by U.S. Postal and their biggest star Lance Armstrong as his 7 Tours de France were taken away due to doping, the free fall has been considerable in the North American country. However, in recent years they have tried to recover with figures such as Sepp Kuss, Quinn Simmons, Neilson Powless or Matteo Jorgenson.
The latter has managed to become one of Visma | Lease a Bike’s most important cyclists. In fact, it’s fair to say that he is currently Jonas Vingegaard’s main right-hand man for the Tour de France, even ahead of 2023 Vuelta winner Kuss himself. But beyond that more US teams are needed, especially since one of the two American WorldTour teams Lidl-Trek is switching over to a German license in 2026.
In this context, the birth of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, created by George Hincapie, could be very positive for the long term. It will start racing as early as 2026, and in statements given to Domestique, Jorgenson has spoken about the positive momentum the creation of a new team has produced in his homeland.
“I’m glad to see it. I think it’s great that there is still interest in road racing in the United States,” Matteo Jorgenson began by noting with excitement.
Will racing return to the U.S.?Another important aspect of US cycling’s downfall was the disappearance of all traditional international events from the country, with long-time iconic races such as Tour of Utah, Tour of California, or the Colorado Classic discontinued over the past decade. Nowadays only the Maryland Classic welcomes WorldTour racing in one of the world’s biggest countries with new initiatives such as the revival of race in Colorado so far failing to produce any results.
Therefore Jorgenson is clearly optimistic about the birth of a new ProTeam based in United States as it provides an extra motivation for stakeholders to move along the projects of returning WorldTour racing to United States more than half a decade since its disappearance.
Matteo Jorgenson, excited about the creation of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling
“I despair at the idea of road cycling in the United States. The fact that there are almost no professional races, that there is no more Tour of California, Utah or Colorado, for me is a real shame,” added the Visma | Lease a Bike rider.
For Jorgenson, being able to once again enjoy a race such as the Tour of California that he watched as a child is a big dream, but above all it is important that initiatives like Modern Adventure Pro Cycling help younger cyclists become professionals within the United States:
“I saw the Tour of California live in my grandfather’s hometown. I still have that memory in my head, and I’m sure it inspired me as a kid. Having teams like Modern Adventure Pro Cycling is exciting because I think it’s at least an avenue for guys who are now under-23 or juniors to make it to the pros,” he said.