Neilson Powless holds off the chase to take dramatic Gran Piemonte 2024 victory solo
Cycling
EF Education-EasyPost's Neilson Powless has taken a dramatic solo victory at the 2024 Gran Piemonte, narrowly holding off the chase in a thrilling finale to the final tune up race ahead of Il Lombardia.
Four riders got themselves up the road to form the day's early breakaway, those being Andrii Ponomar, Nickolas Zukowsky, Francisco Muñoz and Luca Colnaghi. As they reached the foot of the day's biggest climb at around 70km to go, their advantage had been built up to around four minutes. As the descent began though, just Zukowsky and Muñoz were left at the front, now just only a minute clear and at 45km to go, things came mostly back together.
Not everyone was in the lead group of around 20 riders though. Big names such as Giulio Ciccone, Neilson Powless, Tom Pidcock, Alex Aranburu and Matej Mohoric were present though. The first real attack from the group came from Powless too, building a 37 second lead at 30km to go.
Despite the fact there was a sizeable group behind the lone leader, Powless continued to hold the gap pretty well and after the chase was disrupted further by a crash taking out two Lidl-Trek domestiques, the American entered the final lap of around 11km leading by 38 seconds. At 5km to go, it was down to 17 seconds, but he still dangled out in front.
In the chase group behind, Thymen Arensman was on the front, working in the service of INEOS Grenadiers' leader Tom Pidcock but all the Dutchman could do was hold the gap steady rather than cut any time away from Powless. Through the Flamme Rouge, he was in sight at 16 seconds but still just out of reach of the chasers and despite the best work of those behind it was victory for the American as Corbin Strong led home the chasing pack.
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Fantastic ride by Powless. Not only strong, but smart. Time it all just right and held off a solid field.
I really like Powless- kinda reminds me of the kid in the old cycling film "Breaking Away"
Chapeau to Neilson Powless on a great ride, and a very nice win.
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- Agreed. He was dropped hard on every other climb. Without the run up he might have not been in the final sprint. And why not try it? Kudos for him for trying to make the race rather than just following.mij06-04-2025
- To me it seemed like an attempt to get through the climb closer to the front, since his burst power was lacking. If he starts earlier he can take the hill slower and still not be too far behind by the top. It kept him in that group of 4, where he might have been dropped had they all stayed together to the bottom of the climb. Who knows, though. I’m just guessing.RidesHills06-04-2025
- No idea, there have been suggestions something is amiss, maybe he doesn’t have all his mind connected at some moments, I’d definitely do a thorough review of his consciousness under effort.Mistermaumau06-04-2025
- Pogacar and van der Poel have won the last 6 Monuments, and 11 of the last 13 Monuments. There’s never been domination like this by two riders, and we are in our third year of it. (Merckx and de Vlaeminck won a total of 30 Monuments between 1966 and 1979, but others were winning along the way, as well.)RidesHills06-04-2025
- Yes but what was the dumb effort by Van Aert to drop Pogacar, Vanderpoel and Pederson about.? Just showing face? If he had stayed on the wheels and not wasted energy, he might have got on the podium in the runners up sprint.Cyclingsbestfan06-04-2025
- What a loser.
santiagobenites06-04-2025 - I agree about the sprint or drilling it on the flat. Lighter rider versus heavier rider. Inertia is the natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion (e.g the heavier riders momentum) and objects at rest to stay at rest, unless a force causes the velocity to change.Cyclingsbestfan06-04-2025
- Definitely, he is a great rider, and this season might even be as good as last (in a perfect world, a few more Monuments, a Tour-Vuelta double, and the Worlds again), but he has to do this for years on end to compare to Merckx’s results from roughly 69 to 74. Yes, times have changed, yes competition is different, yes speeds are higher, and so on, but let’s let Pogacar be Pogacar and give him time. We can evaluate his career when he retires. Until then, let’s enjoy it while we have it.RidesHills06-04-2025
- Excellent work and show from all of them, glad to see van Aert got back to shape in time. Bring on P-RMistermaumau06-04-2025
- All this seems right but the problem is that two riders of differing weight going at the same speed will have different power and they will also have different power per weight yet are both (in theory, i.e. when trying their hardest) at their max,which means the lighter one is proportionally losing more to the wind (working harder to overcome), the heavier one proportionally losing more to rolling resistance and bounce. The extremely difficult calculations to know which of the 2-3 causes the bigger effect under what exact conditions is what makes it impossible to say who will benefit most in many situations when they aren’t different enough to make it obvious, i.e. a puny climber of 50kg vs a sprinter of 80kg on either the flat or a mountain.Mistermaumau06-04-2025