Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) used a surprise attack from a group of five riders with just under three kilometres to the finish and won Friday's GP Gippingen, formerly known as GP des Kantons Aargau, in Switzerland.
It was the second victory of the season for the American, who had a solid spring with a victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen followed by top 10s at De Brabantse Pijl and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. After missing the podium by one spot at Eschborn-Frankfurt in early May, he took a break with his family and then spent three weeks at an altitude camp in Sierra Nevada.
The hard-fought victory on Friday sets up a start in two days at the Tour de Suisse, which he will use to prepare for the Tour de France.
“It gives me a lot of confidence going into the summer,” Powless said in a team statement. “I think I nailed the altitude training this year. In the past, I've always felt a bit tired after coming down to sea level, so I tried to really keep a lid on things and prioritize freshness. That seems to have paid off and I am really happy about that.”
The 173.8km contest began with four laps around Leuggern, and then added seven passes of the Rotberg climb (7.1km at 3.7%) on the longer circuits south of the Swiss city situated next to the Aare river and the border of Germany.
His fresh legs helped him bridge across to a front group of three riders on the final lap and under 20km to go, giving Jan Christen (Team Switzerland), 2023 GP winner Thibau Nys and Lidl-Trek teammate Andrea Baglioli company. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) also joined the group as the pace picked up, Baglioli then begging dropped.
Then using a false flat and momentum around a traffic island, Powless attacked with 3.4k remaining and never relented when he opened space to the four riders behind.
“I was on the lookout for a good moment to go. One popped up, I reacted immediately, and just went all in on it,” Powless said about his move.
“It was on a false flat downhill, and I knew at that speed that I was going to benefit from the draft from almost 50 meters behind the group, so if I could give them 10 or 15 meters that would give me enough space to get a run at them. It was just some real good old-school bike racing and super fun to execute."
He was in a four-rider breakaway for the back third of Dwars door Vlaanderen but on that day demonstrated his fitness with a final kick for a 'dream' win against Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike). This time he held off a charging Nys, who finished three seconds back in second place.
"I'm getting pretty decent at picking these late moves before a flat finish after a hard day. Today, I had the fitness to back it up.”
In the 61 editions of the one-day race, Powless became the first US-born rider to win the event.
Powless last competed at the Tour de Suisse in 2022, where he finished second on one climbing stage and eighth in the ITT to give EF Education fourth in the overall. Last year the team failed to win a stage or put a rider in the top 10 of the GC.
“Our goal is to come away with one or more stage wins. We’ll be looking for opportunities in the first three days. I think there's a really good chance that we can win one of those stages with either myself or Madis Mihkels or Vincenzo Albanese. We've got a lot of cards to play,” Powless said.
“In the first stage I'll already know if I have legs to try for GC, but today showed that I've got a good kick and my fitness is there. I've got the freedom to go for results and would love to win a stage. Today was just confirmation of the prep that I have been doing for the Tour.”
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