"I don’t think GC in a Grand Tour is really something I’m thinking about" - Neilson Powless keen to focus on polka-dots and stage wins over the coming years

Neilson Powless was one of the stars of the Tour de France earlier this year, spending multiple days of the race in the polka-dot jersey. Such was his enjoyment of this battle, the American is now switching his long-term focus.

"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," Powless explains to Cycling Weekly. "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."

There was a time when Powless was viewed as a potential next American Grand Tour hope. After seeing compatriot Sepp Kuss triumph at the Vuelta a Espana, has he been inspired to reignite a potential Grand Tour challenge in the future?

"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," he explains. "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."

"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," concludes the EF Education-EasyPost man. "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."