Jonas Rutsch will join Modern Adventure Pro Cycling for the 2027 season, leaving Lotto-Intermarché after one year with the merged Belgian WorldTour team.
The 28-year-old German brings substantial Classics and Grand Tour experience to the American ProTeam, with six Paris-Roubaix starts, three Tour de France appearances and a Giro d’Italia already on his record. Modern Adventure confirmed the transfer on Thursday as it continues shaping its second-season roster.
Rutsch’s best result of 2026 came at the revived Philadelphia Cycling Classic, where he finished third after helping force the decisive late move. He also took 19th at the GP Québec and 20th overall at the Deutschland Tour, adding to a career built around long one-day races, breakaways and heavy Classics terrain.
Rutsch adds proven Classics depth
The clearest reason for the move is Rutsch’s record in races where positioning, endurance and repeated hard efforts matter more than a pure finishing kick. At 1.97 metres, he is one of the most recognisable riders in the peloton and has repeatedly used his size and sustained power to get into difficult breakaways and stay useful deep into long races.
Paris-Roubaix has produced his strongest WorldTour results. He finished 11th in 2021, then improved to sixth in 2025 after spending much of the day at the front. Mathieu van der Poel won that edition ahead of Tadej Pogačar, while Rutsch’s sixth place was his best result in one of cycling’s five biggest one-day races. ProCyclingUK covered the 2025 Paris-Roubaix and Rutsch’s top-six finish.
He returned to Roubaix in 2026 but could not repeat that result, finishing 50th. Even so, the combination of his 2021 and 2025 performances gives Modern Adventure a rider who already knows how to survive the decisive sectors and how to contribute when a race becomes attritional rather than controlled.
Rutsch has also built a broader one-day record around those Roubaix results. Ninth at the 2024 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and a series of solid finishes in German and northern European races underline a profile that should fit the American team’s interest in selective one-day racing.
Philadelphia podium stands out in 2026
Rutsch’s 2026 season has been less about headline results than his breakthrough 2025 Roubaix ride, but there have still been several useful performances. The strongest came in Philadelphia at the end of August.
Rutsch attacked late with Robert Donaldson, with Tim Torn Teutenberg bridging across to make a three-man front group. The move survived to the finish, where Teutenberg won the sprint ahead of Donaldson and Rutsch. Third place gave Rutsch his first podium of the season and showed that he can still create opportunities through aggression rather than waiting for a reduced sprint.
Two weeks later he was 19th at the GP Québec after spending part of the race in an early breakaway. The race was eventually won by Remco Evenepoel, but Rutsch stayed involved long enough to take a respectable WorldTour placing. ProCyclingUK’s GP Québec report covered that race.
He also finished 20th overall at the Deutschland Tour and raced Paris-Nice, the Giro d’Italia and several spring Classics. That calendar gives Modern Adventure a rider accustomed to moving between stage-race support work and one-day opportunities across a full European season.
Seven WorldTour seasons before the move
Rutsch spent his first three professional seasons with German Continental team Lotto-Kern Haus before joining EF for 2020. He remained with the American WorldTour organisation through the end of 2024, racing under EF Pro Cycling, EF Education-Nippo and EF Education-EasyPost during that period.
He moved to Intermarché-Wanty for 2025, the season that produced his Paris-Roubaix sixth place and a third Tour de France appearance. ProCyclingUK included Rutsch in Intermarché-Wanty’s 2025 Tour de France squad, where his role centred on breakaways and support across the three weeks.
When Lotto and Intermarché combined for 2026, Rutsch was one of the riders retained in the new Lotto-Intermarché structure. His move to Modern Adventure means he leaves the WorldTour after seven consecutive seasons at the top level, but joins a ProTeam with a growing European programme rather than stepping away from major international racing.
Modern Adventure gain experience for year two
Modern Adventure only began racing in 2026, but the team has already put together a mixed programme across Europe, North America and Asia. Its first season brought stage-race success through riders such as Ben Oliver and Samuel Flórez, while Riley Pickrell added a late-season Tour de Langkawi stage win.
Rutsch gives the squad something different. He is not arriving as a rider expected to deliver a large win total, but as an experienced road captain and Classics option who can contribute in races where positioning, breakaway judgement and durability matter.
His 2025 Roubaix result remains the obvious reference point, while the Philadelphia podium showed this year that he can still turn a hard one-day race into an opportunity of his own. For Modern Adventure, that makes him a useful addition as the team moves from its launch season into a more established second year.
