The Beekeeper Who Proved America’s New Cycling Team Could Win in Europe

Ben Oliver spent years stacking honey boxes around New Zealand, packing warehouse orders, and trying to keep a cycling career alive.

Now he’s winning European stage races.

Oliver won two stages and the overall title at the 2026 Tour de Wallonie, delivering the first European victories for George Hincapie’s first-year Modern Adventure Pro Cycling team.

“I almost still have to pinch myself when the paycheck comes in,” Oliver told Velo. “My lifestyle hasn’t changed much, but now instead of spending all your own money, you’re actually making a little bit of money. It’s an unreal change.”

The 29-year-old New Zealand cyclist had never won a professional road race before. Neither had Modern Adventure.

In Belgium last week, both of those boxes were checked off at the same time.

“If we didn’t have credibility in the peloton, I think we definitely do now,” Oliver said.

Tour de Wallonie 2026: How it unfolded

Since its ambitious debut this season, Modern Adventure Pro Cycling had a lone win back home, but Europe is where it counts.

In the five-day race across the heart of the hilly Belgian Ardennes, America’s new cycling team had its best shot to prove any doubters wrong.

After riding to fourth on the opening day while working for a teammate, Oliver backed himself in an uphill sprint on stage 2 and got there first.

The photos of his finish-line celebration told the story. Oliver pumped his fists and screamed into the Belgian rain, with all those years of near misses and working odd jobs pouring out in a single moment.

“It was just pure emotion across the line when I realized there was no one in front of me or beside me and I hit the finish line first,” he said.

“The difference between winning and second is absolute night and day. Myself and the whole team got so much confidence from that.”

Losing and winning yellow

The leader’s jersey didn’t survive the next day. A late crash took down nearly the entire peloton, and Oliver lost it on bonus seconds despite finishing with the front group.

“It took out all but seven guys,” Oliver told Velo in a telephone call. “We did absolutely nothing wrong. I think it was one of the most impressive rides the whole team did that week.”

The race-winning moment arrived on the brutal, Liège-like final stage in a scene fit for the Sporza highlight reels.

Arnaud De Lie rolled through his hometown roads surrounded by cheering fans. Earlier in the week, the Belgian star had even asked Modern Adventure if he could move to the front so local supporters could see him.

“He had like 100 fans in this tiny hometown of his,” Oliver said.

Oliver knew De Lie’s wheel was the one to follow. He avoided a late crash, came around the “The Bull of Lescheret” in the sprint, won the stage, grabbed the bonus seconds, and stole the overall victory.

“A few minutes later I realized that it had actually happened,” Oliver said. “I got just enough bonus seconds from winning the stage to take the overall. I didn’t find out straight away.”

Ben Oliver’s road to Wallonie

At 6-foot and 157lbs, Oliver isn’t a pure climber, and he’s not really a pure sprinter either. He’s part of that very crowded no-man’s-land of the all-rounder.

“I seem to be able to sprint well after a hard day,” he said.

“If it’s almost too hard for me, but I can just make it over the hills, I know I have a good chance against whoever’s left at the finish line.”

His confidence had been building for months as Modern Adventure kept hoovering up marquee race invitations.

At Ruta del Sol in his first day of European racing, Oliver finished third behind Christophe Laporte in a bunch kick. At Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, he made the front group to sprint for the win behind Matthew Brennan.

He survived the team’s improbable start at Paris-Roubaix and made it to the velodrome.

“Straight away I knew it was possible,” he said after the spring classics campaign.

From mountain biking to Europe

Before he was racing in Belgium, Oliver spent more than a decade chasing success in mountain biking. The big win never came.

“I wouldn’t say mountain biking got boring,” Oliver said. “I never quite cracked the code there.”

Turns out he was pretty good at road racing too. After one final hit-out at the 2025 Cape Epic, where he raced to eighth with his brother Craig, he pivoted full-time to skinny tires.

A stint on the American criterium circuit revealed a sprint he didn’t know he had.

The transition to full-time pro racer wasn’t glamorous. He’d spend the off-season filling the bank account with random jobs, then empty it chasing races.

One year he worked for a beekeeper. Other odd jobs included installing race timing equipment or packing warehouse orders.

“Just anything you can do to get a bit of money to live over the summer and afford the next race season,” he said.

Hincapie’s team called at exactly the right time

Modern Adventure Pro Cycling was still assembling its roster when Oliver got the call.

Despite years in mountain biking and chasing crits, Oliver had never raced for a professional team. At 29, the door finally opened.

“It couldn’t have been better timing that Modern Adventure Pro Cycling almost came out of nowhere when I got a phone call,” he said from Andorra.

Oliver had raced against future team director Ty Magner on the American criterium circuit.

Magner remembered those clashes and reached out.

“One year at Intelligentsia Cup it was kind of me versus him every single night,” Oliver laughed. “I think beating him a few times helped.

“I was fortunate enough to have him and the other directors vouch for me. Now I don’t have to work over summer and can just rip into the racing.”

Modern Adventure: Built for the overlooked

Oliver’s victory meant something beyond getting those first wins on the board.

Modern Adventure built its first-season roster by searching out riders who didn’t fit cycling’s usual script, with prospects who arrived late or veterans who never got the call-up to a WorldTour team.

Hincapie worked his contacts to secure invites into races most first-year teams never see. The staff did the hard yards to turn a roster of outsiders into a racing unit.

“Coming into the start of the year, you didn’t want to be the laughingstock of the peloton,” Oliver said. “The team has certainly trusted in the riders, chucking us somewhat in the deep end.”

The goal was to prove the team deserved to be at the start line — and ideally win a few races.

“A lot of riders came up to us during the week and said how well we were riding,” Oliver said. “We’ve shown as a team that you don’t have to be in Europe for years and years to be competitive. There’s a lot of talented bike riders coming from all parts of the world.”

The Tour of Slovenia is next, followed by a short break and a run of late-summer races across Northern Europe and North America.

Finally time to celebrate

The team’s Wallonie celebration was a lot less glamorous than the victory deserved.

There was no beer-soaked all-nighter. There were planes to catch.

“I don’t think the logistics guy planned podium celebrations into that one,” Oliver joked.

Right after Oliver posed for photos on the final podium, the team packed onto a bus, headed for Brussels Airport, and checked into airport hotels in the middle of the night.

A few days later, he managed a more fitting celebration with a steak dinner with friends.

“Being a full-time pro almost makes my whole cycling career worthwhile,” Oliver said.