In his cobbled classics debut simply three days in the past, Neilson Powless (EF Training-EasyPost) confirmed his spring type and Flemish abilities with a podium end at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
The versatile US rider has muscled his manner onto the radar as a contender for the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
Earlier than Powless powered throughout the cobbles for the primary time in Belgium to a podium in Waregem, the 26-year-old and his spouse Frances posted information to Instagram concerning the arrival of their first little one due in October.
The newfound pleasure might lighten the load wanted on Sunday.
Ought to Powless make a press release on Sunday in Oudenaarde, he could be simply the primary US males’s rider to win the Monument, coming six years after Coryn Labecki, now with Jumbo-Visma, received the ladies’s professional race for Sunweb.
For his first expertise on the WorldTour degree on the cobbles in Belgium on Wednesday, Powless was impressed with the environment and assured with the terrain.
“They know the best way to put a superb bike race collectively. They’re lovely races on actual racers’ programs,” he mentioned.
“The programs go well with me very well. I don’t assume I’m only a climber or one-day specialist. I believe I’m simply good when a motorcycle race comes right down to endurance and it’s arduous all through the day. I’m actually excited to take it one step additional on Sunday.”
That one step would really be two steps up the rostrum for a win at De Ronde, which measures 90 kilometres longer than Dwars door Vlaanderen and has the next variety of successive hills, a complete of 19.
Powless, billed as a climber as he rose by way of the ranks of the Axeon Hagens Berman growth programme after which spent two years at Jumbo-Visma, has hit stride with greater endurance on all forms of terrain.
Simply look again on the 2022 Tour de France.
“I assume it simply confirms my ambitions that I’ve had ever because the Tour de France final yr on the Roubaix stage,” Powless mentioned about final yr’s shock fourth place on stage 5 of the Tour with a big part lined on the pavé of north-east France, launching him to inside 13 seconds of the yellow jersey.
It’s no fluke by any signifies that Powless was aggressive at Dwars. The younger North American amassed a stable string of high 10 performances to open his fourth season with EF Training-EasyPost, together with a pair victories on the one-day Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise and the five-day Étoile de Bessèges, the place he notched his first profession GC title. He additionally completed third in Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, sixth total at Paris-Good and seventh in Milano-San Remo earlier than heading to his first Flemish basic.
EF Sports activities Director Sebastian Langeveld is optimistic about what Powless can do in Flanders. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) are the peloton pillars for the Ronde, however Powless has new confidence. He’s a contender and a darkish horse.
“Neilson is completely able to doing a very good Flanders, however it’s his first Flanders, and there are usually not many races on the market with that many spectators and that historical past, so for him it is going to be key to be not racing on adrenaline, simply doing his race as a lot as potential. He was completely within the image in Dwars,” Langeveld mentioned.
