Neilson Powless evaluates his odds of winning the Tour of Flanders: "Being a complete cyclist is a blessing and a curse, but at Flanders, I think it is a blessing"
Cycling
Neilson Powless has only raced the Tour of Flanders once, but immediately fell in love with the Flemish Monument. And after his 5th place in 2022, he hopes to able to compete for the victory again next month.
"Flanders is a race that demands a complete cyclist," Powless said in a press release. "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."
Kasper Asgreen
The signing of Kasper Asgreen could bring a key piece into the EF Education-EasyPost puzzle, Powless reckons. With an extra leader, the victory odds of the American against the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogacar and Wout Van Aert significantly grow.
"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."
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Paris-Nice
Before taking off to Belgium, Powless has several other appointments. On Wednesday, he'll start at the Trofeo Laigueglia and from Sunday, he'll be racing the 83rd edition of Paris-Nice. While there's no confirmation, it's not improbable that the American would also appear at the start of Milano-Sanremo the following weekend. "I'm really excited for Paris-Nice," he highlights.
"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."
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- Anyone know the “gravel” climb in the photo?Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- That’s not their choice though is it, as so often, decided by a few ageing men who got elected by others like them. The whole system isn’t even more modern than religion. Imagine the laughter if women had been “advised”their full game of football would be 2x15 minutes. Now obviously, some smartass official will justify it as having nothing to do with fitness but a necessity from marketing and financial points of view, having now background data of the market and public for women’s cycling. I’ve rarely cycled with women who couldn’t last as long as men, in fact, in endurance cycling, there are women who outdo the men, some in particular you should maybe read up on : Beryl Burton, Lael Wilcox, Leah Goldstein, Isa Pulver and the list is far longer if, unlike most, you’d decide it was of interest to change your misconceptions and understand the difference is artificially maintained, mostly due to some hard to destroy form of discrimination.Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- Coz it’s not an Olympic year ;-)Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- Rock/hard place, still need the points.Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- These days you get paid a lot better to suck it up so I guess there are fewer complaints now ;-) Anyway, the faster bike argument these days is about as significant the whiter washing powders, only instruments can “feel” the difference unless a manufacturer makes a major cock-up. There is always one exception though, a rider that’s more “comfortable” on a slightly slower bike will probably be faster than on a faster uncomfortable one in all but the shortest time trials, the mental fatigue of discomfort is often ignored, in fact many mental tweaks have probably not been integrated yet, the most interesting topic of the future will be what will be considered mental doping and what will be considered acceptable, anyone?Mistermaumau15-04-2025
- 2011 won by wheel sucker Cadel Evans and 2015 Chris Frome with Team Sky.
James2631815-04-2025 - Hopefully the women won’t be requesting equal prize money as for the men’s race. Even an average week long men’s race is harder than this travesty.
UltimateOpportunist15-04-2025 - So is Pogacar, whose rivals are van der Poel in the monuments and Vingegaard at the Tour, doing the same with his limited calendar of race days?RidesHills15-04-2025
- An interesting description, but I think it misses his motivations. He meets a goal and moves on. Van der Poel does race the Tour, though lately as lead out for Philipsen, after achieving the goal of wearing yellow one day. Same with the Giro, he met his goal and moved on. But yes, lately that sure looks like winning the monuments more than anything else.RidesHills15-04-2025
- Totally agree, if only for the reason that it sends the totally wrong message not to treat it that way, let’s get drunk then we can do stupid things without much punishment, and the drunker the safer. In fact, if alcohol is accepted as a reason for turning to bad behaviour, perhaps representatives of the industry should systematically also be punished financially when there are convictions.Mistermaumau15-04-2025