"It may be that a breakaway can fight for the stage victory" - Neilson Powless takes the polka-dot jersey to the Grand Colombier

Currently holding a 16 point lead in the King of the Mountains classification, Neilson Powless has been in polka-dots almost throughout the 2023 Tour de France. Will he remain so after the stage 13 summit finish atop Grand Colombier?

“It's a demanding climb. It may be that a breakaway can fight for the stage victory," previews the 26-year-old EF Education-EasyPost climber, whose nearest challenger in the battle for the polka-dot jersey is currently the Uno-X Pro Cycling Team's Tobias Johannessen, in quotes collected by In de Leiderstrui. "But I'm not focusing on one rider in particular yet. That won't be the case until we get to the high mountains."

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Perhaps giving away his tactics however, Powless hints at not featuring in the breakaway and on this particular day. "I think I will focus more on the stages with several cols and therefore more mountain points," the American says.

On Thursday's stage 12, Powless was also notable by his absence in the fight for King of the Mountains points. "I looked at whether it was better for me to go with the breakaway, or whether it would be better to save energy for the Alps. After a while I decided to take it easy."

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Focusing on protecting those polkadots tomorrow. 💭🏔️ 📸: Ashley & Jered Gruber

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