America’s new team keeps winning — Modern Adventure caps breakout debut season with six victories after dominant Tour de Langkawi

Riley Pickrell closed Le Tour de Langkawi with a third runner-up finish on Sunday, adding to the stage victory he claimed earlier in the Malaysian race and underlining the consistency that has made the Canadian one of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling's standout performers this week.

The 25-year-old finished in the top two in four of the five sprint opportunities at Langkawi, winning once and taking three second places. He also finished fifth from the peloton on a stage where the breakaway occupied the first four spots, giving him a remarkable run of results across the eight-day race.

Those performances made Pickrell one of the most consistent riders at the race, but the Canadian was quick to point toward the riders around him.

"If I have consistency, it means my teammates are always dropping me off in a good position where I can sprint to a top three," Pickrell told Cyclingnews after the final stage. "So this week I can really only say thanks to my team because they're the reason why it's so consistent."

That level of coordination was not something Modern Adventure could take for granted when the team began its first season. “We didn't have this kind of consistency at the beginning of this year because we had never worked with each other before,” Pickrell explained. “We didn't have the processes. We have spent so many hours post-race being pretty critical on where we've made mistakes in these lead outs and how to read the race better.”

The repeated exposure to those situations has gradually changed the way the team functions. “So now when we're exposed to those situations again and again, we know what the other rider wants out of it and how to adjust accordingly. And that's why the consistency is really coming out,” Pickrell said.

The progress was particularly visible in Langkawi, where Modern Adventure claimed its sixth victory of the season through Pickrell. The result also gave the team a clear example of the step it has taken since the start of the year.

Sports director Alex Howes captured that change before the team's stage 6 victory, when Modern Adventure was preparing to take on XDS Astana in the fight for the sprint. “We're figuring stuff out as a team so honestly, we're just happy to be in a position where we get to have this conversation about beating a team like Astana. They're a good team and we have got a lot of respect for them, but I think we can get around them,” Howes said.

The response from XDS Astana afterward provided another indication that Modern Adventure was no longer being viewed simply as a newcomer. After Pickrell's victory, Astana put the responsibility for controlling the race and chasing the breakaway onto the American team, effectively treating them as one of the squads expected to dictate how the stage unfolded.

For Pickrell, that was significant. “We kind of went into this season kind of being like 'we're just gonna be like the little shit team that nobody respects and it's gonna be really hard to do anything' whereas I really feel like by the end of this season we have a lot of respect,” he said.

The team has now finished its first season with six victories, giving Modern Adventure a foundation on which to build. “I’m super excited for next year,” Pickrell said. “Most of us here are going into offseason now but we definitely finished the season on a high and I think all the guys are really eager to already get started for next season.”