Neilson Powless is to miss the Classics season after being forced to have surgery on his left knee after persistent pain, his team announced on Wednesday.

The American EF Education-EasyPost rider made his season debut at the Tour de la Provence earlier in February, but has now been forced off his bike.

"At least now we can say that the problem is solved and I can move forward with a clear path of recovery," Powless said, in a statement released by the team. The 29-year-old won Dwars door Vlaanderen in memorable circumstances last year.

"It is extremely disappointing to be missing out on the Classics. I was excited to try some new races this year. I had a plan of races I wanted to target and do well in, so this is a big disappointment. This spring will be a recovery period for me. I'll be able to watch my teammates on TV and spend extra time with my family, and hopefully bring some extra motivation and energy for the second half of the season.

"This is not something that's going to take me out for a really long time, but it's something that we will need to be cautious with. It will be a couple of months before I can plan a race, but it's nice to have a clear plan of recovery."

Powless had previously been set to race a number of one-day races this spring, including the E3 Saxo Classic, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"Over the course of the last two months, I had three scans of my knee and the first two showed really promising recovery," Powless continued. "After the second one, I was able to return to training pain-free, which was promising. I was even feeling strong enough to go to a race and start my preparations for the season, but on the third day of the race, I felt pain again and had to stop. I had another scan done, and it showed that the inflammation had never fully gone away, even though I couldn't feel it.

"Surgery was going to give me the highest chance of success, so we opted for surgery. It’s my first surgery ever, but I was in good hands with the doctors here. Together, with the medical staff from the team, we were always making decisions together, and everyone's on the same page about recovery and where to go from here."

EF Pro Cycling Head Doctor Jon Greenwell added that he expects Powless to make a full recovery and be ready to resume training in eight to twelve weeks. No date has been set on his return to racing.

"Surgery to remove the inflammatory tissue gave us a much better chance of a permanent fix," Greenwell said. "The operation went well, and after the eight- to twelve-week recovery window, Neilson will be able to return to riding with no long-term impairment from the injury."

The 2025 Tour de France gets underway in Lille, France on Saturday, July 5, with a peloton of 184 riders spread across 23 teams. This year, only five American riders are among them, but based on their strong performances of late, this small contingent holds great promise.

As the tireless lieutenant for Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss is back for his fifth Tour after missing last year’s event due to a COVID-19 infection. Kuss and the Visma | Lease a Bike squad will be joined by fellow American Matteo Jorgensen who recently extended his contract with the team, and will be one to watch for stage victories.

Spread across other teams are Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), who is lining up for his sixth Tour and will likely be on the hunt for his first Tour de France stage win; American national road race champion Quinn Simmons for Lidl-Trek and Movistar's Will Barta, who's making his Tour de France debut.

Meet the small but mighty U.S. contingent competing in this year's Tour de France.

Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a bike)

After an unfortunate run-in with Covid in 2024, Sepp Kuss is back for his fifth Tour de France, and 14th Grand Tour. The climbing specialist has long been the team’s tireless lieutenant and crucial domestique in the mountains.

In 2023 Kuss became the first American to win a Grand Tour in over a decade when he won the Vuelta a España, proving that he’s perfectly capable of winning himself. He’s also the only American lining up this year who’s won a Tour de France stage before, climbing to victory solo on top of the Col de Beixalis in 2021.

Whether he’ll get a chance to go hunt for another stage win is yet to be seen. In all likelihood he’ll be in full service of Vingegaard and the team’s attempt at a third Tour de France overall victory.

Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a bike)

If Sepp Kuss is considered Jonas Vingegaard's lieutenant, then Matteo Jorgenson may just be his sergeant. The 26-year-old Idahoan has rapidly become one of the sport’s rising stars, and on a smaller team, he'd likely be the GC lead instead of riding in service of others.

Only in his second season with the powerhouse team, Jorgensen has shone in yellow, claimed back-to-back overall victories at Paris-Nice, a win at Dwars door Vlaanderen, second overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and an eighth-place finish at the Tour de France in 2024.

Lining up for his fourth Tour, look for him at Vingegaard's side when the roads point up. And who knows, if he's given free range, he may just get a chance for stage victory himself.

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost)

Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss aren't the only Americans flying up the French mountains this summer. . Neilson Powless, gearing up for his sixth Tour de France, is poised to be a key playmaker for EF Education-EasyPost. In 2023, the Californian excited the American fans by wearing the polka dotted King of the Mountain's jersey for 12 stages before relinquishing it to Giulio Ciccone in the final week.

Due to a nagging knee injury, we saw rather little of him in the 2024 season, but if he’s healthy and finds his rhythm, don’t be surprised to see him in breakaways, hunting for stage wins and maybe even pulling on a jersey of some kind, if only for a day.

Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek)

Fresh off the biggest win of his career, a stage victory at the Tour de Suisse, Quinn Simmons rolls into his third Tour de France with momentum and confidence. He’ll be easy to spot in the bunch: as the newly crowned U.S. national road racing champion, Simmons will be wearing the Stars and Stripes jersey.

Expect the 24-year-old to do the heavy lifting for Lidl-Trek in the sprint stages early on, setting tempo and keeping things under control. But don’t count him out later in the race. With his climbing form on the rise and a taste for aggressive racing, Simmons could seize a golden opportunity to join a breakaway or two.

Will Barta (Movistar)

Making his Tour de France debut, Will Barta will be riding in support of Movistar’s GC leader, Enric Mas.

Like his fellow Americans, Barta’s primary task will be to guide his team leader through the mountains—setting tempo, chasing moves and helping keep Movistar in GC contention when the road turns steep.

At 29, Barta has built his career as a dependable domestique, but 2024 marked a breakthrough as he claimed his first pro win at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, launching an audacious 80-kilometer solo breakaway to take the stage.

After a 2024 cancellation, the Maryland Cycling Classic—America’s top-ranked pro road race—returns bigger and better this season, with WorldTour teams like Lidl-Trek, EF Education-EasyPost and Team Jayco-AlUla headlining the early roster.

Earlier this spring, organisers announced welcomed changes to the UCI event, including the addition of a women’s race and a date shift to align the Maryland Classic with the Canadian one-day WorldTour events. The new September 6th slot makes the transatlantic trip more appealing for European teams chasing points in both Maryland and Quebec.

The men’s and women’s races will take place on the same day and on similar courses. While the women’s roster has yet to be announced, organisers today shared the first seven teams committed to attending the men’s race. A total of 16 teams, each consisting of seven riders, are expected.

Joining the aforementioned WorldTour teams are Colombia’s top team, Team Medellín-EPM, Canada’s Hustle Pro Cycling, American continental team Project Echelon Racing, and a U.S. national team comprising a selection of top young American talent.

“The Maryland Cycling Classic is an event we look forward to each year and are eager to head to Baltimore once again this year after the event was cancelled in 2024,” said Steven de Jongh, head sports director for Lidl-Trek.

“As an American team, the Maryland Cycling Classic is an important race for us. In fact, it’s the only chance we have to race in the United States. Every edition provides exciting racing, and we have great memories of Mattias Skjelmose winning in 2023. Hopefully we will see a Lidl-Trek rider on the top step of the podium once more this year.”

Previous editions of the Maryland Cycling Classic ran in 2022 and 2023, with Sep Vanmarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) winning the first two thrilling events, respectively. In both instances, the race broke apart early across Baltimore's rolling terrain before the peloton reached a fast finishing circuit around Baltimore’s inner harbour.

Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) has finished on the podium in both the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Maryland race, and fans will be keen to see their American star return to race on home soil.

“Our goal remains to field a high-level field and showcase professional cycling to American spectators and a global television audience. This is a rare opportunity to see some of the world’s stars race on American soil. We are currently in negotiations with other top-level teams for the race,” said Steve Brunner, the executive director for the race.

In 2024, the race was forced to cancel due to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, leaving fans worried despite organisers' promises of a comeback. In recent years, too many American races have gone on hiatus only to vanish for good. But the 2025 edition aims to be its most ambitious yet, with a stronger European presence, two races, and renewed excitement to bring world-class competition back to U.S. soil.

Stay tuned for more roster announcements for the men’s and women’s races, in the coming week.

Neilson Powless outsprinted Wout van Aert to win Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday and spoil the party for Visma-Lease a Bike.

The EF Education-EasyPost rider had appeared to be the huge underdog as the race reached its finale in Waregem. He went clear with Matteo Jorgenson, Van Aert and Tiesj Benoot after the Visma trio bridged across to the head of the race with more than 70 kilometres to the finish. Powless sat on as Jorgenson and Benoot looked to set up their teammate in the finishing straight before the former unleashed a fierce sprint which saw him topple Van Aert and pull off a huge upset.

It was the second consecutive victory for America at the cobbled classic after Jorgenson’s triumph last year. Benoot completed the podium for Visma with Jorgenson coming home in fourth.

"I really can’t believe it," Powless said at the finish on TV after catching his breath. "I felt really strong today but I didn't think I had any chance to win from that group. I thought I was riding for second place. I can’t believe it, I'm so happy. I want to thank my family, my team, and everyone for supporting me. It's been a rough spring so far, but I'm so happy to be back."

"I never thought in a million years I would beat him in a sprint in a race like this," he continued. "I came in with a bit of speed in the final corner and I already had maybe three or four kilometres an hour faster than Wout when he started his sprint.

"I just went all the way to the line and I was able to carry that speed quite well. There isn’t a lot of space between that last corner and the finish line, so I just had to start my sprint immediately and pray."

After finding himself alone with Van Aert and his colleagues, there was the odd moment where he appeared to be growing frustrated with Visma’s attempts to force him to the front of the lead group.

"It was a constant inner struggle," he explained. "Even my director in the car was going back and forth on whether I should ride. I didn’t want to sprint from a bigger group and it didn’t feel like it cost me too much just to contribute a bit to the group to keep everyone moving, otherwise they would have been attacking me and I would have been dropped. It was a rock and a hard place, but I’m proud of the way I rode."

"This is the biggest win of my life," he added. "I hope I can fight for the win [at the Tour of Flanders], at least fight for the podium. In these races you need a bit of luck, but you also need a bit of confidence. I think I gained one of those today."

How it happened

Much of the pre-race noise coming into the final cobbled classic before the Tour of Flanders centred on one man, Wout van Aert. By his own admission, the 30-year-old Belgian was disappointed with his performance at the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday and had a few scores to settle before Sunday's showdown with Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.

Would Van Aert and his teammates come out swinging? The answer was yes. With 70 kilometres left to race, Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot, Edoardo Affini and Van Aert himself burst clear from the peloton ahead of the Berg Ten Houte climb and went in search of the remnants of the day’s breakaway. Affini soon dropped away as the quartet reached the summit and quickly passed Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) before making contact with the head of the race.

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) was the only rider able to hold the pace set by the flying Visma trio as Jorgenson drove them on up the Knokteberg and Hotondberg climbs. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) repeatedly attempted to force a split in the main field and instigate a move to go after the leading riders. The peloton, however, lacked cohesion and was unable to get organised as the race began to get away from them with the Van Aert group showing no signs of relenting.

With 32 kilometres to go, the much-reduced main field visibly sat up with EF Education knocking off the pace in order to help Powless up ahead. Pedersen, Girmay, Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Jasper Stuyven were all there but had 44 seconds still to close in order to reach the breakaway.

Pedersen would not give up and was on the attack again from the second group on the Nokereberg, pushing clear and taking Küng and several others with him. The Dane was doing much of the pace setting in a bid to salvage a result for Lidl-Trek as tension started to appear amongst the leading quartet. Powless was visibly frustrated with the Visma riders, perhaps sensing that it would take something miraculous to finish on the podium in Waregem with Jorgenson, Van Aert and Benoot all firmly in control of proceedings. But there was drama still to come.

Jorgenson took the leading four into the final sweeping right-hand bend before the finish and then peeled off for Benoot to lead out Van Aert. Powless, though, wasn’t going to simply bow down and accept that he was beaten. The American hung on at the back of the group before unleashing a powerful sprint that took him past the Van Aert and over the line to seal the win.

Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025 (184.5 km)

1. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education EasyPost, in 3:57:14
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike
3. Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, both at same time
4. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +5s
5. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, +45s
6. Tibor del Grosso (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, at same time
7. Dries de Bondt (Bel) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +47s
8. Arjen Livyns (Bel) Lotto
9. Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ
10. Alec Segaert (Bel) Lotto, all at same time

Neilson Powless is aiming for a Tour of Flanders victory next month and says being a "complete cyclist" can help him achieve his main ambitions of the spring.

The American's best result at the cobbled Monument was fifth in 2023, but he believes the addition of former winner Kasper Asgreen to his team will put him in an even better position this time round to improve on that result.

In an interview released by EF Education-EasyPost, Powless says that he believes he has all of the characteristics needed to pull off a surprise victory in April.

"Flanders is a race that demands a complete cyclist," he said. "That is the best way I could describe myself. I'm not the best climber and I'm not the best sprinter and I am not the best time trialist, but I'm pretty good at all of them, so I feel like I'm very complete. That is a blessing and a curse, but at Flanders, I think it is a blessing."

Asgreen and the American are likely to both share EF leadership when the Tour of Flanders gets underway. Powless said that bringing the Dane into the team has significantly strengthened their chances of successfully going toe to toe with some of the bigger classics teams in the weeks ahead.

"Our ambition is to win," Powless added. "Having a few cards to play is really key to success in that race. I mean, I'd love to win, but if there are two of us up there, it's even better. That means two chances for the team to get a win."

Powless suffered with a bout of pneumonia that kept him side lined at the start of the season but returned to finish sixth overall at the Volta ao Algarve. The 28-year-old Florida native is due to ride Paris-Nice before turning his attention to the likes of Milan-San Remo, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders itself.

"I'm really excited for Paris-Nice," he said. "I just hope that I have the legs I want so that I can be at the front of that race, because it is a fun one to race from the front. I'd like to fight for the podium. If I have the legs that I had in the TT on the last day in Portugal, I'm pretty sure I can be competitive on GC and go for the win on one of the stages."

Powless is based in the Nice area, something he hopes will help him in his attempt to finish high on the general classification.

"It is an intense race and that last stage is especially intense," he added "but it gives me a lot of confidence to know what's around every corner, which corners you need to be in position for and for which corners it's fine to relax. I know every climb down there and I am really excited for it."

This article is part of Cycling Weekly's 'the ride that changed me' series. Our writers hear from a range of professional and ex-professional cyclists about that one day on the bike that changed the trajectory of their career for good.

Neilson Powless has no time for self-pity and always finds positive lessons in the toughest of situations. After a difficult year hampered by a long term problematic knee injury and illness, Powless finally got back on track at the tail end of the season, picking up two individual victories at the Japan Cup and Gran Piemonte in Italy.

It only felt like a matter of time before he returned to winning ways, two eighth-placed finishes at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Il Lombardia suggested that top form was gradually returning. It then eventually arrived with a double salvo of success in his final two outings in 2024.

After turning professional in 2018, Powless rapidly developed a reputation as one of the best and most exciting American riders on the WorldTour. A gradually amassed collection of top tens in some of the biggest one-day races on the calendar added weight to that label, beginning with his first WorldTour level win at the Clásica San Sebastián in the Covid-affected 2021 season.

When Cycling Weekly caught up with Powless in Canada recently, the American highlighted his San Sebastián win as the most significant turning point in his career to date.

"San Sebastián was where I thought ok, I deserve to be here and physically I can be, so I can take real confidence from this," Powless said. "The next one was probably Dwars door Vlaanderen, the first cobbled classic that I did, I finished third and realised then that the Classics might be the races for me.

"Then Dwars again last year and the Tour of Flanders last were some pretty big eye openers."

As it is, Powless has become a rider whose strengths stretch far beyond the cobblestones of Belgium and northern France, with two lengthy spells in the king of the mountains jersey at last year’s Tour de France standing as a testament to his wide ranging skill-set as a bike rider.

But the Florida native still feels that potentially none of what then followed would have been possible were it not for that monumental day in the Basque country in 2021.

"My sports director that day was just so emotional as he lives in that area," Powless added as he reflected on his own personal breakthrough moment. “It's a race pretty close to his heart and he just gave me so much adrenaline, telling me what a big opportunity it was to be going for the win in a major WorldTour race.

"I still think that was probably the best ever sprint that I’ve done in my life at the end of five hours or whatever it was."

The EF Education-EasyPost rider duked it out with Matej Mohorič (Brahrain-Victorious) on the slopes of some of the region’s most notorious climbs, jumping off the front of the day’s breakaway on several occasions in an attempt at a solo effort to the line.

In the end it came down to a tense three-up sprint between Powless, the Slovenian and Mikkel Honoré (then Deceuninck-Quick Step), with Powless edging it on the line along the seafront in the coastal city.

Powless remembers the cacophony of noise, generated by the passion of the local Basque fans, on the majority of the hills he faced that afternoon.

He says the energy of the roadside spectators in the Basque country will continue to draw him back to events in the region time and time again.

"I just remember the fans being incredible on the Jaizkibel," Powless stated. "I love racing in the Basque Country. It really doesn’t matter what level the race is, the fans are just always so exciting to be in front of.

"It really was an awesome team performance from us too. I’m just glad I was able to attack when I did, soften everyone's legs and then win the sprint. That was a real perfect race for me I think."

Neilson Powless has said that strength in depth will be the key to preventing Tadej Pogačar from winning the elite men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday.

After a resounding win at the recent GP Montréal, Pogačar is the overwhelming favourite to take the rainbow jersey this weekend in Switzerland. Alongside the Slovenian Giro-Tour double winner, Remco Evenepoel and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel are expected to challenge for the podium in Zurich.

Speaking earlier this month, Powless said he believes that the US can impact proceedings and challenge for the medal positions. Much of the pre-race narrative has suggested that it is inevitable Pogačar will win the rainbow jersey, although Powless thinks he can be beaten.

"The only way I think you can really beat him in the final is with numbers and forcing him to chase," Powless told Cycling Weekly. "Or you just use a moment of hesitation. You’re not going to be able to break his legs, so you just have to use any good moment you get.

"It’s definitely really tricky, but hopefully we can use our guys to pull a gap out somewhere if one appears."

Alongside Powless, Matteo Jorgenson, Brandon McNulty, Sean Quinn, Kevin Vermaerke, Riley Sheehan, Magnus Sheffield and Quinn Simmons are set to line up for the US in Zurich.

Due to a knee issue which has largely disrupted his season, Powless said that he is determined to end on a high before looking to the new year and fresh targets now that his tendonitis problem is under control.

Powless of EF Education-EasyPost finished sixth at the recent Clásica San Sebastián before recording an eighth placed finish in Québec and 23rd in Montréal.

"I feel like having sat out most of the spring I’ve got a lot of mental pent up energy for next year," he said. "I’ve been really racking my brain about how to get to the next level physically so that I can create more opportunities for myself.

"I think it will start just with dialling in the camps a bit more, maybe adding in one or two more altitude camps in the season, and then maybe a little more heat training as I think that’s definitely something that can be used."

He added: "I just keep tracking out how to make improvements as like we’re seeing, the whole peloton is just getting faster every year. But you just have to keep up with that pace. If you fall behind then you start to feel it."

With the Tour de France kicking off this Saturday in Florence Émilie-Romagne, American cycling fans are daring to whisper the question: “Will an American win a Tour de France stage this year?”

The last American to win a Tour de France stage was Coloradan Sepp Kuss who won stage 15 of the 2021 Tour de France, thereby ending a 10-year drought in which no  American rider ever made it to the finish line of a Tour stage first. 

Sadly, crowd-favourite “GC Kuss” is sidelined from this year's event due to a battle with COVID. However, an American stage winner is still  possible with California-native Neilson Powless (EF Education - EasyPost) on the hunt. 

"I really want to win a stage this year. I still haven't gotten one," the 27-year-old said. 

Neilson is one of just three Americans in the Tour with him,  Matteo Jorgenson (Visma - Lease A Bike) and Sean Quinn (EF Education - EasyPost) making up the American contingent. 

In 2023, Powless became the first American to wear the Polka Dot jersey, and he hung onto that jersey for 13 days.

The Polka Dot jersey signifies the rider who is currently leading the mountains classification. Points are awarded to those who reach the summit of each classified climb of the Tour de France first. The harder the climb, the more points offered.

For Powless’ fifth appearance at the Tour, his sights are set not on the climber's jersey but on stage victory. 

Despite a nagging knee injury preventing Powless from racing much so far this season, he did appear in good form at the USA Cycling National Road Championships where he helped teammate Sean Quinn take the road race title while Powless took home a bronze medal in both the road race and time trial championship. 

Heading to the Tour, Powless said he's got  “high ambitions and big goals.”

“I think this was probably the hardest year I’ve had yet with injuries and illnesses…[but] Nationals and the first half of the Dauphiné reassured me I’m back to a really high level [of fitness] after the rocky spring,” Powless said. “Winning a stage is my first and foremost goal [at the Tour de France], and I think I’ve got the fitness to do it.”

In 2022, Powless came close to a stage win. He was even within 13 seconds of the yellow jersey, so competing at the front of the peloton for a stage win isn't unknown territory for the Californian. 

And Powless won't be the only American with the potential of netting a stage win.

Jorgenson will help to fill in Kuss’ shoes at this year's Tour, serving as Jonas Vingegaard’s righthand man — a hefty job for the Idahoan's first Tour with the Visma-Lease a Bike team. 

Jorgenson has enjoyed quite some success with the Dutch squad already, winning Dwars Door Vlaanderen after an impressive solo ride, and becoming the third American ever to win Paris-Nice race this spring. 

For Americans who have long repressed their hopes of U.S. victories at the Tour since the days of he-who-must-not-be-named, we've got 21 exciting stages and three exciting riders to cheer for, beginning this weekend. 

The 2024 Tour de France gets underway in Florence, Italy, on Saturday, June 29, with a peloton of 176 riders spread across 22 teams.

This year, only three American riders are among them, but based on their strong performances of late, this small contingent holds great promise. As the tireless lieutenant for Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss had been on the roster for Visma - Lease a Bike but caught Covid and was replaced last minute by Dutchman Bart Lemmen.

 Here are the three U.S. riders competing in this year's Tour de France.

Matteo Jorgenson (Visma - Lease a bike)

If Sepp Kuss is considered Jonas Vingegaard's lieutenant, then Matteo Jorgenson may just be his sergeant. The 24-year-old Idahoan is new to the Visma - Lease a Bike squad this year, but he has already proven himself a capable and versatile asset. He claimed the top step of the podium after an impressive solo ride at Dwars Door Vlaanderen and became the third American ever to win Paris-Nice this spring.

Despite his young age, Jorgenson is making his third Tour de France appearance. Expectations are high after his exciting performances last year, when he cleverly rode himself into several breakaways. And who can forget his stage nine performance? He captured the hearts of American fans that day, attacking solo and racing up the Puy de Dôme, only to be caught by the race leaders in the last 500 metres. Whether serving his team leader or hunting for a stage win, Jorgenson will be an exciting rider to watch at the Tour.

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost)

Matteo Jorgenson wasn't the only American flying up the climbs at last year's Tour.  In his fourth Tour de France in service of the EF Education-EasyPost team, Neilson Powless rode himself into the dotted King of the Mountain's jersey on stage two –the first American to wear the jersey since 2017– and managed to hold onto it until stage 15, proving himself as one of the best climbers in the pack. 

Due to a nagging knee injury, we've seen quite little of the California native this 2024 season, though he did appear to be in strong form at the USA Cycling National Road Racing championship. Here, he helped his teammate Sean Quinn take home the title while he himself walked away with a bronze medal in both the national road race and time trial championship. 

Whether he'll be going for another stint in the polka dot jersey or going for stage wins has yet to be seen. Either way, he'll be a rider to watch from the get-go, as the opening stage looks to be rather hilly already. 

Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost)

Twenty-four-year-old Sean Quinn will be making his Tour de France debut this year. Sporting his newly earned stars-and-stripes jersey, the U.S. national road racing champion will likely ride in service of E.F. Education's more senior riders, such as Richard Carapaz, Rui Costa, Alberto Bettiol and Powless.

Without a G.C. contender to challenge riders like Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, the American team will focus on securing individual stage wins. As a strong climber with a powerful sprint, Quinn is well-equipped to contribute to his team's quest for its first stage victory since 2022.

Neilson Powless has had an awfully good year racing for EF Education–EasyPost. He won early in the season, stayed consistent with podium finishes throughout the season, and finished in the top ten in two Monuments —the Tour of Flanders and Milan-San Remo. What garnered the most attention stateside, however, was his spirited defense of the polka-dot jersey at the Tour de France, which he wore for the first two thirds of the race before, ultimately, finishing fourth in the category. We sat down with the 27-year-old American on an outdoor patio overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor the day before the Maryland Cycling Classic to talk about his year so far. The Mid-Atlantic region might not be well-known for it, but it sees some serious heat and humidity in the late summer months, which he’d been quietly preparing for ahead of America’s highest level professional road race. Powless was relaxed and confident ahead of the race. He would place second, bettering his third place in 2022. 

[Conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.]

Cycling Weekly: What was it like having Worlds earlier in the calendar this year? Were riders happy with the change?

Neilson Powless: It was different, but I feel like cyclists are good at adapting. I don’t think anyone was disappointed or upset about it. The strongest rider [Mathieu van der Poel] won in the end; I don’t think anyone can argue that. I felt like I was capable of a top 5, maybe even a podium, if things worked out really well but as soon as there’s a tiny separation it’s really hard to close those gaps. When Jhonatan Narváez crashed in front of me I was never able to get back to those guys. 

Tell me more about your Tour de France.

I feel like at the Tour this year I was always trying to find my top level. I always felt like I was underperforming a little bit. I was able to race really smart and take mountain points where I could and I was still very capable of getting into breakaways, so the fitness was there, it just wasn't what I was expecting it to be. I was chasing that. By the end of the Tour I felt like I finally started to find it a little bit. And that gave me a lot of confidence for San Sebastián and the World Championships. If you’re not on your hands and knees on the final stage of the Tour then that generally means you’re going to be going fairly well for the next few months. It’s kind of weird how that works out, but that’s been my experience. 

Is there anything you feel like you’ve learned about yourself now that you’ve raced the Tour a few times?

At the Tour de France you only have so many days you can go all in, so you definitely have to be careful. If you can be smart about those days, you can get a lot out of the race, as opposed to trying to go for it every day. This year going for the mountain points required me to go all in more than I would have done otherwise, so I maybe gave up some better stage results going after those points. But I learned a lot about the mountains competition. It was a different type of race than I was used to racing and that was really exciting. I definitely don’t regret going for it. 

Are you going to make the polka-dot jersey an objective in the future?

I’d really like to. Going for the jersey this year was bittersweet. If you commit that much energy to it and then lose it, it’s a tough pill to swallow. I’ll just have to decide [based on] where my fitness is coming into the Tour and how the races have gone up leading into it. If you’re a top 5 contender, no one's going to let you go up the road to take mountain points. If you want to go for the mountain points, you need to lose time in the first few stages so that you’re allowed to get up the road. It’s tricky. 

Do you have future GC ambitions?

I don’t think GC in a Grand Tour is really something I’m thinking about too much, so for that reason I think I would like to win the polka-dot jersey one year. I would also like to win a stage of the Tour de France. Doing both of those is pretty tough. Each year I’ll have to decide which one’s going to be a better opportunity.

You’ve got some big changes coming your way this offseason (Powless and his wife Frances are expecting a baby in October). How are you feeling?

I’m pretty excited. I was really thankful to the team for letting me build a schedule around that. They were very accommodating, which is great. I’ve got an awesome wife and awesome family, so I’m going to be pretty excited to take on this new challenge. I think it’ll make life a little more exciting.

Is parenting something you talk with other riders about? It’s certainly a unique profession, and one not one that allows for things like disrupted schedules, illness, etc.

There’s not a lot of people you can ask about it; not very many people are pro cyclists and are also raising kids. I’ve definitely been talking to [riders I know with kids] quite a bit. Poking them with questions every now and then, asking tons of questions about stuff that they’ve done, what was hard, what was good, what worked, what didn’t. I guess everyone’s experience is still going to be unique, so there’s only so much you can learn. 

Keeping in mind the offseason will be a little different (vis-à-vis having a baby) do you have a sense of what next year is looking like?

This year was kind of a revelation at the Classics, so I’d like to go there with a real goal of performing well. I may have started the season a little too hot this year. I was feeling so good in January and it’s not like I tried to peak that early, but I think I tend to build fitness quite fast, so I just need to keep myself on a tighter leash this winter. My main goals are probably going to be March and April, and then obviously the Tour de France. Flanders is probably the one that sticks out the most. Even though I had a bit of bad luck, I still pulled off a really great result. If I could just eliminate one of those crashes then maybe I could even go one better. Hopefully I can take another good stab at Flanders.

Did you know you were capable of that result? [Powless finished fifth at the Tour of Flanders in 2023]

I’d just ridden third in Dwars door Vlaanderen two days prior, but prior to that I didn’t know what to expect. I was just expecting to go to Dwars door and get some experience. Then I came to the realization: I just podiumed in a WorldTour cobbled classic and Flanders is in two days. This is crazy! I found myself in the situation and kind of rolled with it and it worked out really well. This year I’m going to try to make sure I don’t overdo things before that. 

I want to talk a little bit about the big picture, and U.S. road racing in general. Not that long ago, riders would be here for California, then again for Utah and Colorado before the WorldTour races in Quebec, but those American stage races have disappeared…

I hope they have more races. Everyone is excited about coming over to America to race. I would love to spend more time here, but that’s not the case anymore, you can’t really spend three months in America any more. I got one good year of [North American stage racing] when I was on Jumbo. That was a great season.

This year is different, with the baby, but normally my whole life is in Europe. I know that cycling in America is still big, but it’s in different forms. Gravel is growing and high school mountain biking is definitely growing. That’s encouraging. That’s what gave me a really good foundation, NICA [National Interscholastic Cycling Association], when I was in high school. That's what started solidifying my love for cycling, just being able to go camping, and race your mountain bike and train with your friends every day. 

It's a shame there’s not more road racing, because you need road racing in America to transition into becoming a professional. I think as long as there’s a love for cycling and it's growing in some ways, whether it's offroad, onroad, crits, road races, it can still attract athletes to cycling. 

Maybe there are things to learn from gravel to reshape how races are run here?

Gravel has sort of imitated the way marathons are run. There are pros but there's also mass participation. It's financially beneficial for the organizers to put a gravel race on. Road racing in America hasn’t quite gotten around to that. Look at the Tour of Flanders; they have the Sportive [Amateur ride the day before the race]. It’s 50,000 people all paying 400 bucks. You get an incredible experience. You still race across all the cobblestones. You go through all the beer gardens. You actually get to stop at the beer gardens, if you want to, unlike us in the race. Same thing with Amstel. That creates, 

1) An awesome event that anyone can enter and race over the same course on closed roads, and 

2), it creates a more sustainable model for the race in general. I would hope that there are people out there still in love with cycling that are thinking about this already.

Everyone speaks so highly of the Tour of California, how awesome it was, how much fun they had. You have tons of WorldTour pros every year going on holiday in California because they got the exposure from the Tour of California. Geraint Thomas going to Malibu and Romain Bardet going to Malibu for training in the winter. I know Max Schachmann went to Sacramento a couple of times. 

Your EF teammate, Lachlan Morton, is riding the Tour Divide route right now. Have you been following along?

Yeah! That dude’s crazy, man. You see him drinking out of pickle jars and drinking gallons of milk. I’m glad that he’s giving himself at least 6 hours of sleep a night. 

Do you keep in touch with him while he’s out there?

Not during, definitely not. But he still comes to training camps. I talk to him every now and then. I definitely miss him in the peloton. I miss him as a teammate. He’s also doing something pretty wild and really cool. It’s cool to see him doing what he’s doing. 

Lachlan’s sort of on his own doing his alternative calendar. Do you think you might try something like that in the future?

It takes a special person. At EF we have a pretty awesome marketing team. And JV [Team Manager Johnathan Vaughters] is always trying to think outside the box. I haven’t done it yet, but if i put my hand up to do something like that they would probably be all over it. I’m trying to be a little careful about saying what I would like to try because they would jump on it.

Nielsen Powless is breaking out into one of the best riders in the world. With a fifth place in the 2021 road World Championships Powless has grown even better in the last two years with 12th overall at the 2022 Tour and a fifth in the Tour of Flanders and seventh in Milan SanRemo Powless has shown some incredible versatility and ability to beat the best riders in the world. 

Powless is currently fighting for the Polka Dot jersey at the 2023 Tour De France, having worn it for 14 days so far in this tour. Additionally Powless has already been selected for Team USA for the UCI World Championship in Glasgow this year.

1. Neilson is Oneida on his father's side and in 2020, he became the first tribally recognized Native North American to race the Tour de France.
   
2. He is only the sixth American to wear the Polka Dot jersey joining Nate Brown (2017), Taylor Phinney (2017), Tejay Van Garderen (2011), Greg Lemond (1986) and Marianne Martin (1984).
   
3. He was the American U23 road race national champion in 2017, winning a three man sprint ahead of Gage Hecht and Brendan Rhim.
   
4. While Neilson is only 26, he has been racing since he was very young and turned pro in 2018.
   
5. His first WorldTour team was Lotto NL Jumbo which is now known as Jumbo Visma.
   
6. In his Grand Tour debut, he was a part of Primož Roglič’s GC win during the 2019 Vuelta España.
   
7. After two years with the Dutch Jumbo squad, Neilson moved to the American outfit of EF Pro Cycling now known as EF Education-Easypost.
   
8. He’s a military kid; his dad was in the Air Force.
   
9. His mother was an Olympian running the marathon for Guam in 1992.

10. He's currently expecting his first child.

11. He lives in Nice, France.

12. Cycling runs in the family as his sister Shayna Powless is also a professional cyclist riding for the DNA Pro Cycling team.

13. Neilson grew up racing XTERRA off-road triathlons alongside sister 

14. He won the XTERRA World Championship in 2012 in Maui, Hawaii. His sister finished second.

15. Neilson is named after his dad: Jack Mcneil Powell - Neil’s son.

16. Neilson has also raced in the MTB world championships in 2014 finishing eighth in the junior men. 

17. He is an alumni of the Axel Mercxk’s development team Hagens Berman Axeon, riding for them from 2015 till 2017.

18. Neilson grew up in California and watched the Tour of California in person at the age of 10. He would then compete in the Tour of California in 2016, 2018 and 2019

Before the 107th edition of the Tour of Flanders gets underway, three names have been on everyone's lips as the potential winners of this year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.

The same trio looked head and shoulders above the rest of the field at the recent E3 Saxo Classic won by Van Aert, but that doesn’t mean that someone can’t burst from the pack to spring a major surprise in the outskirts of Oudenaarde on Sunday.

As previous editions have taught us, the Tour of Flanders can be a chaotic race, where things don’t quite go as planned. The route and cobbled Bergs occasionally throw up late twists, and sometimes things go right down to the wire as we saw last year.

Ahead of the action, Cycling Weekly has already looked at the five men’s and women’s favourites for the win.

Here are five potential dark horses for the men’s title this weekend.  

Søren Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Similarly to Christophe Laporte at Jumbo, Kragh Andersen is the not so secret weapon at Alpecin-Deceuninck, and will provide an excellent foil to Mathieu van der Poel when things get going on Sunday.

While he’s yet to win a major Classic, the Danish rider has consistently been a threat in some of cycling’s major one-day races, including at the past three editions of Milan-San Remo where he’s achieved three consecutive top ten finishes. After finishing fifth in San Remo a few weeks ago, Kragh Andersen managed ninth at the E3 Saxo Classic, before a crash took him out of contention at Gent-Wevelgem.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, the Dane referred to himself as a major “dark horse” for Flanders, and he has past form to back that up. Kragh Andersen won two stages of the 2020 Tour de France, launching powerful long range attacks from a breakaway which nobody could answer.

If Van der Poel is unable to separate himself from Van Aert and Pogačar on Sunday, expect Kragh Andersen to launch a last-gasp move as Alpecin looks to ensure glory at all costs. 

Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easy Post)

America’s Neilson Powless is fast becoming a one day specialist, and has sneaked two top eight finishes in major Monuments in recent years.

Earlier this week he was in the thick of the action during his debut on the Belgian cobbles, taking third at Dwars door Vlaanderen behind a rampaging Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma). Combining Wednesday's result with seventh at Milan-San Remo suggests the form is there.

Former Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol, Mikkel Honoré and Owain Doull will also provide the American with plenty of firepower to keep him in position over the various Bergs along the route, and in contention with the trio of favourites.

If Powless gets the jump on the final ascent of the Paterberg, he could spring a big surprise in the Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team Emirates and Alpecin-Deceuninck camps in Oudenaarde. 

Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious)

Labelling Matej Mohorič as an outsider for Flanders may seem surprising, although the Slovenian is yet to find the form this spring that saw him win Milan-San Remo last year.

The Slovenian has managed some solid results in the Classics this year, but has only managed to break into the top three on one occasion at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Nevertheless, Mohorič has the raw power and strength needed to get over the cobbled climbs that feature in Flanders, and if everything goes to plan, he could well be in contention in the finale.

His best result at Flanders to date is 21st, but if anyone is going to catch out the trio of pre-race favourites, then it's him. 

Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step)

Just like the rest of his Soudal Quick-Step team, Julian Alaphilippe has massively struggled for form this spring, and hasn’t managed to hit his past level which saw him become world champion on two separate occasions.

The Frenchman started in style by winning the Faun-Ardèche Classic, although was unable to kick on from that point. 43rd at Strade Bianche was a huge disappointment, but 11th at Milan-San Remo was a slight progression in form. Throughout recent months, the huge weight of expectation at Quick-Step won’t have helped Alaphilippe, and he’s also had to deal with regular public criticism from Patrick Lefevere. 

Philippe Gilbert, a former Monument winner in the Belgian team’s colours even recently suggested that Alaphilippe could benefit from a move elsewhere to recapture his race winning form.

With all of his doubters circling, Alaphilippe may well come out swinging on Sunday, and look to silence those around him. After his crash when in a race-winning position a few years ago, Alaphilippe has a score to settle with Flanders.

It would be quite something if he was to return to form by winning ‘De Ronde’ on Sunday. 

Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo)

Pedersen and his fellow teammate and Classics star Jasper Stuyven are just two riders who have suffered at the hand of Jumbo-Visma this spring.

Although Pedersen in particular is one rider who the likes of Van der Poel will be wary of, and certainly won’t want with them when the action kicks off in Flanders. Coming into the race, the Dane has accrued two consecutive fifth place finishes at Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen respectively, clearly showing that he has the form to challenge in the upcoming two Monuments.

As a former world champion, and Ronde runner-up in 2018,  he won’t fear the trio of pre-race favourites, nor the tough parcours on the menu. If Pedersen can muscle his way into a select group of leaders on Sunday, he has the raw power and physicality to launch an attack, then see it through to Oudenaarde. 

I was at a friend’s house recently when I spotted it. An old Wheaties cereal box on display in the kitchen. The orange box had faded edges. Its heavy, whole grain contents long past the expiration date. The reason it had been saved for so long —23 years and counting, in fact— is because it’s become a bit of a collector’s item. The box's chosen champion, wearing the yellow Tour de France jersey and depicted in blurred motion, is Lance Armstrong. 

To support its famous “Breakfast of Champions” slogan, General Mills has been featuring American athletes on the Wheaties packaging since 1937. And over the years, this tradition has become a bit of an indicator of an athlete’s stature in American culture. The likes of Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Serena Williams have all been featured. 

In 1999, after winning his first Tour de France yellow jersey, Armstrong was the first, and ‘till this day the only, American cyclist to grace the cereal box packaging. He would of course be stripped of this achievement along with all his other Tour de France wins in 2012, but the Wheaties box and, alarmingly, the cereal lives on. 

(Irish cyclist Alan McCormack, American Doug Smith and their teammates from the Wheaties-Schwinn team did precede Armstrong when their likenesses appeared on the cereal box in the 1980s, but that was to showcase the sponsored team not necessarily in recognition of individual achievements.)

Since Armstrong’s infamous Oprah Winfrey interview in 2013 that disgraced the American hero forever, road cycling has been on a steady decline in the United States. 

Participation at amateur and elite events across the country are dwindling, and international races like the Colorado Classic, the Tour of California and the Tour of Utah have all folded due to lack of financial support. 

Only four UCI races remain and they barely reach beyond the local newspapers, let alone offer enough incentive for international stars to come and cross the waters. And without a superhero to get behind, American sports fans pay little attention to what happens abroad, even if young American talent is netting stage wins.  

It seems that for cycling another Wheaties moment is a long way off. Or is it?

In search of a Wheaties Box Moment

Back in 2017 when the interest in gravel riding was really taking off, the hashtag #roadisdead started trending, and the bike industry was sitting on thousands of unsold rim brake road bikes, the then-President of USA Cycling, Derek Bouchard-Hall, told us not to panic. 

“Road is absolutely not dead,” he told me at the time. “It’s going through a midlife crisis.”

It’s cyclical, he explained. Cycling saw a boom in the 1980s and again in the early aughts. It would surely come again. And it did, to an extent. In 2020, the Covid pandemic led to a bicycle boom, just not the road racing kind.

What the racing fad of the 1980s and the early aughts have in common is an American cycling hero. First it was Greg LeMond and then Armstrong. Villain or not, no one can dispute that Armstrong’s victories and cancer story made him a household name — so much so that it was his image you were looking at as you poured your morning cereal into a bowl. 

After Armstrong’s retirement in 2005 the question became, who’s next? And it’s the question we’re still asking today though there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon. 

“I’m optimistic. The industry is cyclical and road [cycling] has been in the hurt locker for quite a while,” USA Cycling’s current CEO tells Cycling Weekly. “We’re seeing the strongest U.S. men’s presence in Europe in 15-18 years.”

Indeed, the latest crop of American WorldTour riders like Joe Dombrowski (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Brandon McNulty (UAE TEam Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost) are demonstrating that Americans not only belong in the WorldTour circuit, they have the potential to win even the biggest races.

Kuss soloed to a mountain top stage win in the 2021 Tour de France and has shown heaps of promise. A the same time, McNulty has played a critical role for Slovenian star Tadej Pogačar in the mountains for several Grand Tours now, and then there’s Powless, who narrowly missed out on the Maillot Jaune on stage 5 of this year’s Tour, and gave American fans everywhere a reason to get up at the crack of dawn to turn on the T.V.

“We — USA Cycling— exist to grow the sport of bike racing across the U.S. And for us, two things have proven to grow the sport of bike racing. One, heroic riders like Neilson [Powless]...Neilson is the future of American bike racing. American fans were all shouting at their TVs this summer as he was fighting for the yellow jersey at the Tour de France,” says Quirk. 

Of course, since Armstrong’s disgrace, the U.S. has seen some incredible female cycling stars with the likes of three-time gold Olympic medalist Kristin Armstrong; climber Mara Abbott who became the first American to win Italy’s Grand Tour, the Giro Rosa; and Coryn Labecki who, in 2017, made history by becoming the first American, man or woman, to win the Tour of Flanders —  just to name a few. 

“Our women have long been our strongest asset,” Quirk agreed. “But unfortunately these athletes have not been getting the public attention they deserve, though that is changing, '' Quirk says. 

Hence no Wheaties box…yet!

The other thing that promotes growth is international races on U.S. soil. The inaugural Maryland Cycling Classic, won by Belgian Sep VanMarcke (Israel-Premier Tech), in August serves exactly that purpose. 

It was one of just four UCI races in the U.S. in 2022 and the highest ranked one at that, carrying a UCI Class 1 ProSeries status.

It was also the first time the U.S. had hosted an international world-class field since the 2019 Amgen Tour of California, a multi-day WorldTour race that was last won by Tadej Pogačar. 

Quirk called it the "most important bike race that’s happened in America in the last five years," and hopes it will reignite some of America's cycling fandom. 

Domestically, there are small signs of the pendulum swinging in cycling’s favor as well. 

“When I look to local associations in American cities, I see growth and momentum, says Quirk. 

Quirk explains that at USA Cycling success is measured in two ways: membership and the number of USA Cycling-sanctioned race days.

“Road has been on a steady decline since 2013, but —not looking at the Covid years— we’re actually seeing growth in membership and we’re hitting our forecasted numbers in terms of race days,” he says.

Initiatives like the L39ion of Los Angeles and their influence in the crit scene are another step in the right direction. 

“L39ion is doing a fabulous job to make cycling resonate in new communities. [Team owners] Justin and Corey [Williams] want to produce superheroes and we support that. Americans love their superheroes,” says Quirk.

“We’ve absolutely got potential heroes. In time they’re going to win a Spring Classic, the yellow jersey [at the Tour de France].”

For USA Cycling, the task before them now is looking for new pathways to get participants who are flocked to gravel and Gran Fondo events into “more traditional racing.”

This is, of course, with an eye on the governing body’s rather ambitious goals for the coming six years. In June the federation announced that it’s set a goal of 7 to 10 medals at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and another 12-15 medals at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, with world championship podiums along the way.

“A yellow jersey at the Tour de France, the world championships, the Olympics — they transcend everything,” Quirk says. 

“An American on the top step of those podiums, that will be our Wheaties Box moment.”