Neilson Powless sprints to first pro win at Clásica San Sebastián

Neilson Powless opened his pro account on the wet, greasy roads of the Clásica San Sebastián on Saturday.

The Californian edged a three-rider photo finish after an attacking finale of the Donostiako Klasikoa before celebrating with jubilation along with his EF Education-Nippo team staff.

Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) placed second in the kick to the line, narrowly edging out Mikkel Honoré (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), who finished third.

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The result is the biggest of Powless’ young career.

The 24-year-old regularly animates breakaways in tough hilly days of racing and has twice placed in the top-6 of Tour de France stages. Powless made it count in Saturday’s Basque race after playing a one-two with his teammate Simon Carr.

“I can’t even put into words how much this means to me,” Powless said after the race. “Our director Juanma (Garate) was so excited to come to the race, we didn’t even have the favorites and so we tried to race smart, and in the end we played our cards perfectly. I’m so happy.”

“It’s my first pro victory, and I’m so happy to have taken it here in San Sebastián with a director that’s local. Every time I’ve raced here it’s been incredible with the fans, so I’m super happy to win in front of such enthusiastic crowds.”

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Powless had gone into the final kilometers with just Mohorič and Honoré for company after the trio became part of a five-rider lead group on the race’s final Murgil climb.

Mohorič opened up the sprint from the front, but Powless was able to come off his wheel and nudge across the line a fraction ahead of the Slovenian to score his landmark debut win.

16 riders had formed the day’s early break as Powless hung back in the bunch.

The ecapees fractured on the Jaizikibel climb as the peloton lingered around two minutes back.

There were a number of crashes on the wet roads as the pace started to increase in the final 50km. Several riders hit the deck in separate spills before three Bora-Hansgohe riders – including Wilco Kelderman and Matteo Fabbro – came down on a greasy corner, with a race moto also on the ground. Television cameras did not capture what happened.

Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) sparked a flurry of attacks from the peloton on the Erlaitz climb before Carr countered to set up EF Education-Nippo’s winning play. The Brit accelerated hard and motored past Landa and the fractured breakaway riders to lead the race over the summit of the Erlaitz with 40km to go.

Powless, Mohoric, Honoré and Lorenzo Rota (Intermarche-Wanty) bridged across to form a group of five at the front of the race with Carr, and they dangled around one minute ahead of the bunch on the decisive Murgil climb.

Powless didn’t wait when he saw teammate Carr begin to fade.

The 24-year-old kicked out of the breakaway and led solo before Mohoric, Honoré and Rota managed to claw their way back on.

The greasy roads again had a part to play on a sweeping right-hander at just 5km to go. Honoré lost control and slid into a wall, with his bike rebounding into Rota. Mohorič and Powless came through unscathed and powered away at the front of the race before Honoré again caught back with just 1400m to go to set up the final sprint.

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The peloton had been charging into the steep lower slopes of the Murgil climb when a crash mid-way through the bunch brought down a number of riders and impeded the chase for the breakaway riders. Trek-Segafredo desperately tried to bring back the charging leaders on behalf of Bauke Mollema but it was all too late, leaving the breakaway to scoop the podium spots.