"The climbs are significantly longer than any of the Monuments that we've done so far this year" - Neilson Powless approaches Liege-Bastogne-Liege with caution

While the attention will be on the duo Pogacar-Evenepoel during Liege-Bastogne-Liege, other teams can plot to overthrow the superhumans from the shadows. However EF Education-EasyPost is not one of them since all of their leaders are known as notorious attackers. Neilson Powless will be one of the men to keep an eye on.

"It is a race that's so, so hard and so long. The climbs are significantly longer than any of the Monuments that we've done so far this year. It’s just a super hard race," he admits respect for La Doyenne in pre-race statements.

For Neilson Powless, this will be his fourth time at the pinnacle of racing in Ardennes. His best result dates back to 2022 when he arrived 8th. "I finished in the top ten here once, which was a really nice result. It feels good when we are deep into the race and the climbs get selective and you're still there."

With 250 kilometers and way over 4000 meters of climbing, the race is not to be underestimated. "It's going to be over six hours of racing on hard roads. First things first is just basically sacrificing the entire team to get one, or hopefully two riders, in with a shot, basically from La Redoute onwards, because that's typically where the fireworks start and favorites go."

Although Powless scored the biggest triumph of this year for EF Education-EasyPost when he upset Visma trio at Dwars door Vlaanderen, he admits the American team's got plenty other cards to play on Sunday. Especially Ben Healy is in great form, Powless assesses:

"Ben is flying right now. He is going uphill really fast. He is probably going to be our main leader. I'm hoping to be there with him deep in the finale. If I can help him, or if I have the legs so we can play a double leader strategy, that would be nice, but if I need to, I'll gladly sacrifice myself for him and hopefully we’ll land on the podium. In this race, if you can have two cards to play in the last ten kilometers, there's a really good chance you can land someone on the podium."