Never say never, that’s Neilson Powless’ thoughts on a future grand tour general classification bid.
The American rider has shown promise in the GC at a three-week race after he finished 12th at the 2022 Tour de France, but he’s not sure that he’ll go back to the French race to try and better that.
While the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia could see him take a tilt at the overall, Powless sees the major one-day races and stage wins as his biggest goals and his best opportunity to add to his palmarès.
“It’s hard to say if I’ll ever go and go into a grand tour looking at GC. I think I’ll have better success if I shoot for stage wins and maybe the polka dot jersey,” Powless told Velo. “GC at the Tour de France is it’s pretty specialized to about three or four guys that could realistically aim to win. I don’t count myself in those three or four.
“Until I can say physically that, I probably won’t try for GC in the Tour de France, at least. The Giro and Vuelta could be a different story one day, but with the current competition, I think the Tour is a bit out of reach with the physical abilities that I have right now… Maybe one day. I feel like every year I’m kind of trying different things. Right now, I think the main focus is just spring classics, monuments, races that I can win.”
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After notching up his best-ever Tour de France overall result, Powless came into this year’s competition with different ambitions. In his search for a stage win early on, Powless picked up the polka-dot jersey of the mountains classification and spent the remainder of the race trying to keep a hold of it.
The 27-year-old enjoyed two stints in the distinctive jersey — between stages 1 and 4, and then six and 13 — but it ultimately wasn’t meant to be. The final few days of the race saw him slip down to fourth in the classification after failing to crack his polka-dot rival, Giulio Ciccone.
“It was an awesome experience going for the jersey. Physically, I wasn’t as good as I was hoping to be and that’s kind of what kept me out of the fight. In the third week, especially, I kind of felt like I almost faked it a little while because I could still get in the breakaways and I still have a pretty good punch,” he said. “But I just never felt like I was on top of things. It felt like I probably had one or two really good days and the rest were okay. Not great, but just okay. And you can’t win a jersey at the Tour just being okay.”
While last year’s GC effort, and his brushes with the yellow jersey, were a big moment for Powless, he never really felt the pressure of the occasion. However, fighting for the mountains classification was a different story, especially with the mathematics involved in trying to get it.
“At the Tour last year, I wasn’t going into it thinking about GC, so I feel like the pressure was really low the whole time and I genuinely just enjoyed it. It just felt nice to be up there with the best and finishing so high in the overall felt, for my career, it was in some ways defining for me. Even though it wasn’t the most extravagant result, it still gave me a lot of a lot of pride to see where I’ve made it this far.
“I feel like this year it was almost more pressure because the polka dot battle was just so complex. There were so many different ways that you could gain points or lose points or fall behind and the GC was really straightforward. You just needed to survive as long as you can, or just get up the road to take time and basically get to the finish line as fast as possible. Every day, the Polka Dot jersey was way more complex, and I feel like it was almost even more stressful than GC.”
Becoming a Netflix star
For the second year running, Powless and his teammates were followed by a camera crew throughout the Tour de France for the Netflix show “Tour de France: Unchained.” The EF Education-EasyPost squad was one of eight teams that featured in the first series, which told the story of the 2022 race, and it was back again for season 2.
Powless was one of the stars of the show, particularly in the fifth episode which detailed the race’s visit to Alpe d’Huez. Riders are well used to having cameras put in their faces at the start and finish of most race days but filming with Netflix was on a different level. Yet it was one that Powless largely enjoyed.
“It was cool. I mean, it was kind of taxing at times, I would say. But overall, it was a really nice experience,” he told Velo. “I would say it was almost beneficial. A few times, they helped my wife get around from stage to stage and watch the Tour de France. She was out a few stages and it ended up just giving us more resources in the area to find out where I was, what was happening, where Francis [Powless’ wife] was and to help her get up a mountain one day so she could watch the race. It was good, they’re a great group of guys and really passionate about their work. So, it was cool having them around.”
After the first series was broadcast in June of this year, there was much debate about how the race and the riders were portrayed. While some riders might have been less pleased about how they came across in the show, Powless enjoyed it — as much as he could enjoy watching himself.
“It’s kind of hard watching myself on TV, but it was cool. My family was really excited that they could kind of see more about what I’m doing,” he said. “It sounded like the feedback from people who didn’t know much about the sport was positive. I thought that was cool and they painted me in a good light, so that was nice.”
Powless hopes that the Netflix show could have a positive impact on cycling’s viewership in the U.S. but he was left disappointed that live coverage was primarily kept to the streaming service Peacock, with NBC only showing a select few stages.
“It was a shame that NBC wasn’t putting it on TV in America, so there was a big drawback there from the support in the U.S. But then there was also this other boost from Netflix. So, I feel like it almost equaled it out,” he said.
“I feel like the Netflix series had a positive benefit on the viewership in America and fans and people reaching out and saying how into it they were now. But at the same time, it was really disappointing that NBC wasn’t broadcasting in the States. It definitely took a hit there.”