As Neilson Powless made his way through the mixed zone in Waregem after placing third at Dwars door Vlaanderen, a television reporter suggested it was a surprise to see the American finish on the podium of this, his very first Flemish Classic. “Yeah? Why not?” he shot back playfully.
Why not, indeed. Powless could joke about it afterwards, but he was absolutely serious about his prospects here from the outset. The EF Education-EasyPost rider hadn’t come to Belgium on a whim, after all. The decision to sample the cobbled Classics this Spring was inspired by a fine display on the pavé at Arenberg on last year’s Tour de France.
“I was coming to the race today with the ambition of trying to win,” said Powless, who was part of the decisive eight-man move that formed over the Knokteberg with 54km to go. Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) would escape in the finale to win in Waregem, while Powless and the surprising Oier Lazkano (Movistar) fended off the closing peloton to round out the podium.
“It was really nice to be up there, and I guess it just confirms my ambitions ever since the Roubaix stage at the Tour de France last year. The cobbles felt ok, I felt really strong over them. I kind of confirmed that I still felt fairly fluid and solid over the cobbles. Hopefully I can continue to be at the front of these races on Sunday at the Tour of Flanders.”
Although Powless cut an assured figure every time the race hit the cobbles, he still to endure an initiation rite typical of races in this pocket of the world. As ever, narrow roads plus tension added up to crashes. Powless had to put a foot down to avoid one shortly on the Trieu, and he then spent the next 10km trying to subtract mud from his cleats. Welcome to Flanders.
“I thought my race was over there. I was behind some crashes, I stepped in a pretty deep pile of mud, and it took me a while to get my shoes clipped back in,” Powless said. “I think I spent around 10k just trying to spray my shoes with water and get fixed up. I had to spend a bit of energy there, right before the race kicked off.”
The race ignited on Berg Ten Houte shortly afterwards, but Powless was always well positioned, and, together with teammate Mikkel Honoré, he joined the day’s pivotal move when it went clear over the Knokteberg ten miles later. The group, which included strongmen Laporte, Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), would spend the next hour or so stalking the remnants of the early break while trying to fend off the chasing peloton.
“From 50k to go, it was a drag race between the riders in front, the riders in the early break and the peloton,” said Powless. “I was maybe a little too eager to keep the group away, because Mikkel and I knew we would have no chance in a sprint. It was either make the group stay away or be fighting for top 15, maybe.”
Not for the first time this Spring, a shapeless race would ultimately bend to Jumbo-Visma’s liking, as Laporte powered away with 4km to go to seal the squad’s fifth cobbled Classic victory of the campaign to date. Powless was caught on the back foot when Laporte drifted clear, but he worked to secure at least a podium spot from his day’s work. While the rest of the winning move was swept up, he and Lazkano managed to stave off the bunch, coming home 15 seconds behind Laporte.
“If I didn’t lead the sprint out, we’d have been caught. A win would have been better, but third is better than tenth,” said Powless. “I think everybody knew Laporte was strong from quite a way out, I tried to chase him down, but I think we all knew we were racing for second by the time I got back up.”
Flanders
Powless has been one of the outstanding performers of the early season, winning the Grand Prix de la Marseillaise and Étoile de Bessèges, before placing 6th overall at Paris-Nice and 7th at Milan-San Remo, and he has now parlayed that form to the cobbles. When the American first turned professional with Jumbo-Visma in 2019, he was viewed by most as a stage racer in the making, but he has developed into one of the most versatile riders in the entire peloton.
“I don’t think I’m just a pure climber or a one-day specialist: I think I’m just good when a bike race comes down to endurance,” he said. “I think I have a pretty big tank. I don’t think I have the strongest punch in the world, but I know that if the whole day has been hard, I tend to find my way to the front a little easier.”
That attribute augurs well for Powless’ Tour of Flanders debut on Sunday, where the Monument distance and the sheer volume of climbing should play better to his powers of endurance than the short, explosive Dwars door Vlaanderen. “It’s a much harder day and that benefits us more,” he said.
Even though Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) are the runaway favourites for the Ronde, Powless has quietly announced himself as a most intriguing outsider.
“It might make my job a little bit easier when they’re there. It definitely won’t be my job to make the race hard on the climbs, I think I’ll just be trying to shadow them a bit more,” Powless said. “But I’m really excited to take it one step further on Sunday.”
