“The pressure from the media and fans is enormous for Wout van Aert" – Neilson Powless recalls sympathy after stunning Visma rivals at Dwars door Vlaanderen

Neilson Powless has reflected on one of the standout moments of the 2025 Spring Classics, revealing both the instinct and the emotion behind his surprise victory over Team Visma | Lease a Bike at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

In a newly published interview with Wieler Revue, the EF Education-EasyPost rider revisited the race’s dramatic finale — including the mix of satisfaction and sympathy he felt after out-sprinting Wout van Aert.

Powless’ win back in March became one of the most talked-about tactical collapses of the spring, and although many at the time pointed to a calamitous collapse of the Visma plan, the American also received immense credit for how he won it.

Against a leading trio of Van Aert, Benoot and Jorgenson, he overturned seemingly impossible odds, timing the final corner to perfection before launching one of the best short sprints of his career to snatch victory on the line.

Even months later, Powless remembers the finale with surprising clarity. “I wasn’t nervous in a negative way, but the nerves and adrenaline definitely kicked in during the final phase. At the same time I thought: if I stay on Wout’s wheel, I’ve at least achieved my spring goal. I just needed to not crash and then I’d have my podium place.”

That last corner — the moment that changed everything — proved decisive. “Only because of that good last corner did I have slightly more speed and Wout’s first kick also wasn’t as strong as I expected.”

From that point, instinct guided him. “With a hundred metres to go I thought: you’re definitely second, but now you have to do everything to beat him. My peak values weren’t even amazing, but it was one of my best 20-second sprints ever. I thought Wout would have a second kick, but that never came.”

Crossing the line ahead of three Visma riders silenced the Belgian crowd, yet Powless says the triumph came with complex emotions. As a former teammate of Van Aert, he immediately understood how much the result would weigh on his rival.

“After I crossed the line and left the Belgian public stunned, I did feel a bit for Wout. On the bike I wanted nothing else than to win, but yeah, a year earlier Wout had crashed in Dwars door Vlaanderen. A victory would have completed the circle.”

What followed is one of the most candid rider observations of Van Aert’s reality as a national sporting figure. “The pressure from media and fans is sometimes enormous for him. You can get into a strange state of mind during a race. You can start doing crazy things in those moments. I can imagine riding around with the feeling: I have to show I’m good enough, I have to meet the expectations.”

Powless contrasted this with his own situation in stark terms. “If I finish seventieth in the E3, that’s disappointing for me and the team, but there’s no one at the door asking what went wrong. For Wout, there is. He’s not allowed to make mistakes. By finishing second the pressure only increased.”

Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025 has already entered the season’s folklore: Powless producing one of his finest ever efforts; Visma unable to convert a dream 3-to-1 scenario; Van Aert shouldering yet another layer of public expectation.

But in Powless’ December retelling, the story becomes more than a race replay. It reveals the human tension behind one of the year’s most dramatic finishes — the freedom of the underdog, the burden carried by a superstar, and the fragile line between triumph and scrutiny in Belgian cycling.