Hagens Berman-Jayco lines up as the only North American team among a field of 22 at Paris-Roubaix Espoirs this Sunday. Junior track standout Ben Wiggins will be part of the seven-rider roster and ride the famous cobbled course for a second time, having competed last year in the junior event for Team Great Britain.
The son of Bradley Wiggins is looking to make his own name riding his first season on the US-based Continental programme run by Axel Merckx. He competed in two events in Greece to start the season and next takes on the under-23 Hell of the North, a race in its 57th edition and three times the age of Wiggins.
Merckx said the team would do some recon on Friday, checking out as much as 80 kilometres of the course.
“It’s one of our main goals for the beginning of the season and we are hoping to put in a good performance,” the team owner and director told Cyclingnews.”This year, it’s even more exciting than usual since it’s the same day as the pros, so it’s going to feel almost like a real WorldTour race.”
Paris-Roubaix Espoirs covers 163.6km from Le Cateau Cambresis to the Roubaix velodrome. It is indeed like the real WorldTour race, with 24 sections of pavé comprising 42.7km of the route, which is just five sectors and 13km less than the pro men.
Riding with Wiggins on the Hagens Berman-Jayco roster on are US duo Darren Parham and Evan Boyle, Dane Adam Jørgensen, Australian Hamish Mckenzie, Italian Mattia Sambinello and Adam Rafferty of Ireland.
Jørgensen rode as a stagiaire with Jayco AlUla at the end of last year and has had one-day success with top five rides at U23 Eschborn-Frankfurt in 2023 and U23 Gent-Wevelgem in 2022. Rafferty, just 18, was part of the Tour of Rhodes squad in mid March and was the best placed rider on the team with ninth on GC.
“I’d been talking to Axel for a while and I’ve always admired the team, knowing the history of the team, and how many guys have gone to the next level from the team,” Wiggins said in early spring. “I knew straight away that it was the right place for me to develop and try to get to the World Tour.”
Having just turned 19, Wiggins considers one-day races to be among his strengths, since he excels in time trials and short, rolling terrain.
“I think my dad and I are similar in many ways. I was lucky enough to inherit his TT abilities, and also on the track, we race in similar ways. Classics and stage races both suit us. I think he is a much better climber than I am, but that is also something he had to work on a lot over time. Hopefully, I can follow in his footsteps in terms of climbing capabilities, and that will come with time.”
Wiggins competed in the junior competition of Hell of the North last year for Team Great Britain, finishing in 50th place. At the U23 event this time out, he’s looking to put his name on the list of winners alongside compatriot and 2019 winner Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Stan Dewulf (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) from 2018, Nils Eekhoff (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) from 2017 and (Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) from 2016, among others.
Among other up-and-coming riders on the start list who have familiar family ties to pro cycling are Joseph Pidcock (Trinity Racing) brother of Ineos’ Tom Pidcock, Colby Simmons (Visma-Leas a Bike Development) brother of LIdl-Trek’s Quinn Simmons and Tim Torn Teutenberg (Lidl-Trek Future Racing) nephew of former pro and now Lidl-Trek assist sports director Ina-Yoko Teutenberg.
Merckx was successful last year in renewing title sponsor Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for another three years and added Jayco as a new co-title sponsor. The team also has a partnership with BMC and will race on Teammachine SLR01 bikes in 2024.