George Hincapie and Benjamin Noval shared a bus as U.S Postal riders, now their sons are battling at the World Championships

Hincapie finished 56 seconds behind Spain's Benjamín Noval, who posted a benchmark time of 25:17.35 on the 20.3km course. For the American, the final uphill drag to the finish was brutal. "I'm pretty dead right now," he told Cycling Weekly. "That was a pretty long 26 minutes. Probably the longest 600 meters of my life from that corner to the finish, so I'm glad that's over."

Despite the disappointment, Hincapie quickly shifted his focus. "I obviously wanted to fight for a medal in the time trial, but the legs weren't there at all today," he said. "I'm not really gonna let that bring me down."

Noval, meanwhile, became the first Spanish junior time trial world champion. The 17-year-old Spaniard has already signed a two-year contract with Netcompany INEOS through 2027, and beat Belgium's Vic de Smet by six seconds to take the title.

Hincapie's father, George, and Noval's father, also Benjamín, spent four seasons as teammates at US Postal and Discovery Channel. George joined US Postal in 1997 and remained through the team's transition to Discovery Channel, while Noval Sr. arrived in 2004 after three years at Relax-GAM, staying through 2007. Both were key support riders for Lance Armstrong.

Even though Enzo Hincapie hasn't raced the famous Mont Royal circuit, he's seen it on television many times while watching the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, a race where his father, George Hincapie, competed in the first two editions, 2010 and 2011. "We always watch it, you know, with my family every year," Hincapie told Cyclingnews. "My dad did that race a few times back in his career, so he's told me some stuff about it. I'm looking forward to it."

Thursday's junior road race brings 134km and 2,690 metres of elevation gain, with the 4% gradient of Avenue du Parc to be tackled 10 times. Across his first season with the German-based Grenke-Auto Eder, the development team for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Hincapie has done well on long one-day races, finishing in the top-10 at both Paris-Roubaix and E3 Saxo junior races.

"It's all about being in the right position and hitting the climbs in a good spot," Hincapie said of Thursday's race. "I don't think you should really be sleeping at all at any point in that race. I mean, it's going to be a long race, a lot of times of the climb. So you just got to keep fighting."

Their sons are now establishing themselves on the world stage, and Noval will line up on Thursday as the newest junior time trial champion. Whether Hincapie can turn the tables on the son of his father's former teammate remains to be seen, but the generational thread linking US Postal's past to cycling's junior ranks makes the road race in Montreal all the more compelling to watch.