“I'm hungry for competition, that's for sure”: American Neilson Powless returns to racing after five-month injury layoff

Neilson Powless is back in the peloton after nearly five months on the sidelines, as he made his long-awaited return to competition at the Tour of Austria on Wednesday following knee surgery earlier this season. The EF Education-EasyPost rider has raced just three days in 2026, all at the Tour de la Provence, before persistent knee pain forced him to abandon the race and ultimately undergo surgery.

Powless explained that recovering from the surgery took a lot of time and patience. "I've been out of racing since the Tour de la Provence in February, but that month I had surgery, and it's been a pretty long process," he explained in an official statement shared by the team.

The recovery began with a lengthy spell completely off the bike before gradually increasing his training load. "I was off the bike for five weeks initially, and when I restarted, we kept the recovery conservative. That basically meant doing 20 to 30 minutes a day on the bike for about two weeks."

Thankfully, his body responded well to the slow plan, and he has spent the last two months training without any pain at all. "Slowly we built things up, and for the last eight or nine weeks I've been riding pain-free, and it seems like the injury is completely in the past. The knee is handling the load really well, and we've been able to set some goals."

The 29-year-old rider is happy to be back with his teammates at EF Education-EasyPost, but he is not setting huge expectations for his first race back.

"I'll be restarting my season in Austria, and I think that this will be a really nice race to get going in again. I'm looking forward to getting back into the peloton, and feeling like a bike racer for EF Education-EasyPost again."

Even though he wants to race hard, his main target is just to finish the race safely and improve his fitness for the rest of the year. He hopes he might have a chance to try for a stage win if the road suits him.

"I'm hungry for competition, that's for sure, but the main goal is to get through the race in one piece and come out of it in better shape than I went into it. There's not a huge amount of pressure at this point, but this is a good, hard race, and I do hope that I can compete for stages on a few days that suit me."

"The fitness isn't quite there in terms of looking at the overall standings, but this race should push me towards where I need to be for the second half of the season."

Powless also praised EF Education-EasyPost for taking a cautious approach throughout his rehabilitation, allowing him to return only once he was fully recovered.

"The team have been super supportive throughout this whole process. The only pressure that I've felt is the pressure that I've put on myself to get back to racing."

He believes the team's patience has ultimately put him in the best possible position. "The team have been really thoughtful when it's come to creating a plan of action and looking at what I've needed. They've always erred on the side of caution and moved things along as patiently as possible in order to make sure that I've healed completely. I'm in a really good place because of that."