EF Education-EasyPost may be down the rider they specifically signed for the Spring Classics, but their ambitions in Belgium remain the same. The US team will be led by a motivated Neilson Powless, hoping to replicate his previous strong Classics results.
Former Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen made the switch from Soudal-QuickStep over the winter with the specific role of leading the team through the biggest races in the spring. The Dane will now miss the whole race block with a viral infection.
Although news of Asgreen's absence was only confirmed earlier this week, EF have known about his illness since Paris-Nice. Heading into Friday's E3 Saxo Classic, the team had clearly moved on from the initial loss of their leader.
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"At the moment, I would say that's old news. It's not a topic," directeur sportif Andreas Klier told Cyclingnews ahead of E3.
"Not that we don't know how good he would have been if he would have been able to race, but first things first – first get healthy, and then come back. I think this is number one. So at the moment, here in Harelbeke, it's not a topic."
Focusing on getting back to health rather than rushing back to racing has clearly been a key factor for the team, with Asgreen himself saying: "It's going to hurt to miss the races I love the most, but I'm very, very grateful that I'm in a team where they see my best value as being the best version of myself."
Without Asgreen, EF will look to the experience of riders like Owain Doull to bring some of the expertise that Asgreen would have added to the team, whilst their best chance at top results now looks to be Powless.
The 28-year-old took third in Dwars door Vlaanderen and fifth in the Tour of Flanders back in 2023 but missed the Classics last year due to injury, so he's back in Belgium to try and rediscover some of that form in these races.
Powless acknowledged the gap Asgreen will leave, but he was clear that he and the team were not any less hopeful or motivated to get stuck into racing.
"He was going to be our headliner for the Classics this year, which is really unfortunate. He's got probably the most experience from our team in these races, so it's a big bummer to not have him here," Powless said.
"But we're still super ambitious, and I'm still really ambitious to try to land on the podium here, even try to win, but it definitely would have been better with him here."
Losing a leader would see most teams change tack or perhaps reevaluate their goals, but for EF, where opportunism and scrappy racing have been their modus operandi, the objectives remain.
"It doesn't change [our ambitions] at all. Same goals – we're down one really strong rider, but the goals stay the same," Powless said.
After recovering from pneumonia earlier this year, Powless started E3 in good spirits, positive about his form, and hopeful that a repeat of his strong results in Belgium 2023 would be possible.
"I'm feeling really good. I'm always motivated, that's never a problem, but hopefully I've got the legs to back it up," he said.
"Basically from [February] I've been feeling better and better, apart from the hiccup in Paris-Nice – I was just frozen every day, that sucked – but then San Remo I felt awesome again so hopefully I've got the mojo back."
Klier was also upbeat about the American's abilities, without piling on any pressure.
"We wanted to race him here, we want to race him in Dwars door [Vlaanderen], we want to race him in Flanders, because if he finds back his legs – which I believe [he can] – then you're going to see him on TV," he said.
"If not, it's also not the end of the world. There are other races to come, and other seasons, and this that and the other. That's the reason why he's here: if he has golden legs he's going to be on the TV camera. If not, then not."
Though EF have yet to pick up a win in 2025, Klier said that the team is working well together and riding well in general but just missing the last piece of the puzzle needed to take a top result at the end of a race.
"The execution is actually the thing they did very well, but somehow the [last part of the race] to the line isn't a given. Basically, the opposite of De Panne, where we rode not good at all as a team, but we got third," he said.
"The other races, for a few weeks now, we actually ride very well as a team, and we don't get a result, so let's hope we ride very well today and get a result."
