Neilson Powless in hunt of "diamonds in the legs" to score big in "any race this spring" against the likes of Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
Neilson Powless belongs among the most versatile men in the peloton. The 28-year-old American can climb, ride on flat, fly over cobbles and even put in the effort against the clock and sprint after a hard day out in the saddle. This combination of skills brought him six professional victories already, but he aims for more.
"I’d like to be on the podium of a monument," Powless told Velo. "Let’s just say I’ll try to win a monument. But honestly, I don’t really know when I’ll have diamonds in the legs. So I’ll be trying to win any race this spring that I’m feeling good at."
For the most part of 2024, Neilson Powless was far from his best self due to injury and illness. But he got on the right track after Tour de France. A super compensation? Perhaps. In any case the American suddenly became a regular top-10 feature again in all kinds of races, winning Gran Piemonte with stunning 42-kilometer solo and later the Japan Cup too.
"Yeah, I think the fall last year was about as best I’ve ever been," he agrees. "At least with the sensations I had. It just felt like I could do almost anything. Those feelings don’t come around too often. So luckily there was plenty of racing to be had around that time for me."
"I feel like I finally started to get into a groove there in the fall," he said. "I really hope that I can continue to race that way this year. I’ll try to keep myself healthy and keep myself injury free, because the tendonitis really took me out of almost the whole spring last year."
But can you really do anything to prevent some injuries from happening? Powless believes working on understanding his body better is one of the possibilities: "I’m trying to stay more flexible, a bit stronger than I was last year, and hopefully that sorts things out.”
The peloton is improving at a tremendous pace, is it even possible to keep up? "I’m still getting better each year, but I think just in general, everyone’s also getting a bit stronger," Powless explained. "So I think from where you find your place in the peloton, where I was last fall is probably about where it’s at."
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- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025
- Even if not technically against the rules, this is just bad etiquette and frankly I hope the rest of pelaton remembers Arkea don't care about etiquette or honoring tradition which means they shouldn't benifit from it.HoopoeChai07-04-2025
- The other issue is that Mad Petersen and Wout would have let MVDP do most of the work, as he kept showing he was stronger. MVDP did the strategy with the highest likelihood of victory, he just wasn't strong enough.acem8207-04-2025
- Crash did not help, Out of position for first attack did not help, illness did not help, pacing was not the best either. MVDP has never raced to his limits against other riders but this is his characteristics when he cracks, he cracks big time just like his first elite men WC RR. Against Pogi he needed to be optimized and he is notabstractengineer07-04-2025
- Yes, I completely agree! Before going to a doctor, I give my immune system time to react. If a reasonable amount of time passes and I'm not cured, then I go to the doctor. Fortunately, I haven't needed a doctor in years!
maria2024202407-04-2025 - A lot of medicine does nothing more than speed up recovery time 4-5 days instead of 7-8, 10-12 instead of 2 weeks. It is questionable if it’s really a good thing for healthy people to rely on it as it also makes your immune system lazy and less responsive next time round, making you more and more reliant on medication (surprise, surprise). A bit like glasses, the less you succumb to adapting their strength, the slower the deterioration. Unfortunately many bacterial infections are not so easy to fight without help, your body should manage in the end but it can take really long, I once had strong fever for 3 months trying to fight an infection without reducing work or lifestyle (the antibiotics at the beginning didn’t help).Mistermaumau07-04-2025
- In this case, maybe is my fault (my ignorance). Fortunately, my family hasn't been sick for many, many years, so I can't say if doctors in Italy are still old-fashioned. When we catch a cold (very mild, nothing that requires medical attention), we recover completely in about a week. This may have reinforced my belief in the 7-day cure. Thank you so much, MisterMmaria2024202407-04-2025
- I appreciate the No Excuses thing...bobo07-04-2025