The man who beat Visma's trio in Flanders - American Neilson Powless inks new deal with EF Education-EasyPost until 2029

29-year old Neilson Powless has signed a new contract with EF Education-EasyPost until 2029. The move comes with no surprise as the two are a perfect match, and the American secures in the long-term one of its leaders and most successful riders.

“We all know that Neilson’s work ethic is basically second to none. He's going to train as hard as he possibly can, until the day comes when he can no longer race a bike," Jonathan Vaughters said in a press release. "That is so in his nature. I have no doubts that his performance will continue to be excellent".

Powless turned pro in 2016, rode for Team Visma | Lease a Bike from 2018 to 2019, and ever since 2020 has been a part of the American structure. Here he has discovered his true potential and has achieved the best results of his career, winning races such as the Clásica San Sebastian, Gran Piemonte, Etoile de Bessèges, GP La Marseillaise, and more.

"Slowly but surely, he is learning real race craft too. Neilson was sort of a bull in a China shop in years past, using his power to fix problems. He's learning to be a bike racer now. His race craft and his ability to tactically read a race has improved considerably. That is going to help his performance over the long term. He will be able to win more races, because he knows how to be a better bike racer now than he did before.”

This was most notable this spring at Dwars door Vlaanderen where he was the only rider managing to match a team attack by Visma his former team, made up of Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert. The team worked only towards a sprint for the latter, but Powless got the best of him, netting a win that would be memorable in any riders' palmarès. This year, he also finished fourth at Eschborn-Frankfurt, won the GP Gippingen, finished sixth at the Clásica San Sebastian and fourth at the UAE-dominated GP de Montréal.

“I don't think I ever would have realized that I could be a classics rider until I joined this team,” Powless added. “This team is famous for its outside-of-the-box tactics. Letting me go to the classics, or the way Ben raced into the yellow jersey at the Tour, or just the way we race the Tour every year, shows that. It makes it a really fun team to race for. Our tactics are always exciting and there are a lot of opportunities here for a lot of guys. That has helped me progress. I have found my niche in cycling here. Being opportunistic in hard, hard races has really paid off. That's the way I've learned to race and the way I want to keep racing. This team is just the perfect environment for that.”  

Powless feels no need to change environments and continues to evolve, in a generation where riders often reach their peak in the early or mid 20's. The one-day races are where he has specially taken a step up this year consistency wise. “The classics embody cycling at its purest. You are just all in on that one day. Your body has to be so strong to be able to handle the distance. And there are a hundred different ways you could try to win the race. Obviously, being the strongest gives you the best chance. But, the tactics in the classics are just so intriguing and so exciting to me. It's like a chess match the whole day for five or six hours".

"You're constantly running through the different ways you can try to chop up the race and have the race unfold in your favor, whether you're trying to put your team on the front for a specific section to put pressure on guys when they're not expecting it, or trying to go into a breakaway earlier than expected to try and catch the favorites off guard. For people who really understand cycling, I think the tactics at the classics are just the most exciting.”

EF Education-EasyPost did not host a media day and so the schedule and goals of their riders for the 2026 season are not well known, and it is not certain when his 2026 calendar will be unveiled. But with certainty, it will include the cobbled classics once again. “I've transitioned into this opportunistic one-day racer, who's able to race on almost any kind of terrain – cobblestones, climbing, flat, circuit races, or just super long point-to-points like Sanremo- I think I have developed into a really complete rider during my time on this team".

The way that we go to races and try to achieve results has brought that out of me. I am really happy and proud of the kind of rider I have become. I never thought in a million years that I would try to win a cobbled classic, but it happened this year," he recalls.

"And now I am chomping at the bit to back it up and build a spring around Monuments racing. I haven't won a Monument yet. And that's definitely a goal that I want to hit. But, just being able to be in the mix of every Monument I've started shows the completeness and the diversity of the athlete that I have become. It makes bike racing super fun, because I can go to every race and get involved in the action.”

Besides his teammates, he finds the environment a second home, with staff who he's grown fond of over the years more and more. “The staff is always doing everything possible to make the most and get the most out of every piece of equipment we have and tailor every minute of the day to help us recover and perform. We can really feel that [...] They feel that joy just as much as the rider who crosses the line first. I have crossed the line and seen staff in tears, they're so happy, and that's just such a special feeling that you can share all together," he concluded.