A hundred yards or so past the finish line, Neilson Powless stood in the middle of the road, shaking his head in disbelief and smiling at the same time. A Tour of Flanders debut can have that effect, especially when you spend almost 100km off the front and reach Oudenaarde in fifth place.
The Ronde is an intoxicating kind of madness.
“These races…” Powless said, as the knot of reporters huddled around him began to loosen. “I thought it was over so many times today.”
Although winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and runner-up Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) would prove beyond his reach in the finale, Powless was among the best of the rest, narrowly missing out on the podium as he came home in a chasing group 1:12 down.
Powless only took his bow in the cobbled Classics last Wednesday, placing an assured third at Dwars door Vlaanderen. That performance, not to mention a confident display on the pavé at last year’s Tour de France, made the EF Education-EasyPost rider a highly-fancied outsider for the Tour of Flanders, even if his inexperience on this terrain still could have been an impediment.
It certainly felt that way when a brace of early crashes left Powless navigating these uncharted waters without the usual instruments to guide him.
“I knew I felt good, but I crashed twice and I lost my computer, so I was just relying on what I could get from my radio,” said Powless.
“I wasn’t sure how far into the race we were and when the climbs were coming. I just had to take them as they came. I constantly had to ask [directeur sportif] Andreas Klier what was coming up and I even had to ask the riders around me how far into the race we were.”
Attack
A Tour of Flanders debut is a confusing experience at the of best times. Most are left feeling as though they are chasing a race rather than participating in it. Powless, however, had the nous to realise that his best option was to get ahead of it.
“I was just a bit lost sometimes, but maybe it’s best to race on instinct like that,” said the North American, who joined fellow ‘shadow favourites’ Stefan Küng and Kasper Asgreen in a 10-man move that went clear on the Molenberg with 100km to race.
At one point, they would have a lead of almost three minutes over Pogačar, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Van der Poel, even if that advantage would begin to contract rapidly once the Big Three began running through their scales from the second ascent of the Kwaremont.
Pogačar and Van der Poel, first and second at the finish, would burn their way through the front group on the second haul up the Kwaremont, but Powless put up stouter resistance than most. He would race to Oudenaarde in a solid chasing group, beaten to the podium only by the pure speed of Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Van Aert.
“I knew I had to take some risks if I wanted to try to win today, so I went from quite early on the Molenberg,” Powless said. “When [Pogačar and Van Aert] came up to me, I tried my best to follow on the Kwaremont. I was maybe taken out of position a little bit by some guys who were peeling off the front, but in the end, they hit it from behind with so much speed… I just tried to ride it as fast as I could.
“They were too strong for me today, but I feel like I’m making steady progress every year so hopefully one day I can be there.”
When Powless turned professional with Jumbo-Visma in 2018, he looked a Grand Tour contender or deluxe mountain domestique in the making. Since switching to EF ahead of the 2020 season, however, his career has taken him on a more varied path. Endurance may be his core physical trait, but it has carried him to lofty results on all terrains.
In the opening months of 2023, few riders have been as good in as many different settings as Powless, already winner of the Grand Prix de la Marseillaise and Étoile de Bessèges, sixth overall at Paris-Nice and seventh at Milan-San Remo. On this week’s evidence, the cobbled Classics can be added to that bulging repertoire.
“Growing up, I loved watching the Tour of Flanders, but I never thought I would be one of the riders suited to this race,” Powless said.
“But I love cycling so much, and when you’re racing at the front of a Monument, especially one as beautiful as Flanders… Man, it gives me chills.”
