Neilson Powless, USA's Next Classics King? 'I'm Closing the Gap to Van Der Poel, Van Aert'

Neilson Powless roars into the spring classics wiser, more confident, and with Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in his scopes.

Now 27, the Californian brings lessons from a blockbuster 2023 into a stacked spring of mud’n’guts racing that will see him as a lead challenger to classics reference points MVDP and WVA.

“I feel like in the last couple of years I’ve started to close the gap to them a little bit,” Powless told Wielerflits of the two one-day dominators.

“They’re still going to be the favorites in every race that they show up to, but I’m getting more confident at every race I do.”

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EF Education-EasyPost‘s U.S. attacker was a key player in last year’s northern classics, and he’s coming back for more in 2024.

The wild joyride of Strade Bianche this Saturday marks the start of an XL spring schedule for Powless that includes Milan San-Remo, E3 Saxo Classic, the Ardennes, and possibly a lot more in between.

The Tour de France will also feature in Powless’ 2024 after his KoM antics last summer.

“I have quite a few big goals this spring, lots of the classics,” Powless said. “I’ll be trying to win any one of those, so hopefully I can do one.”

Already a winner of summer’s Donostia San Sebastian, Powless banged hard on the door of something huge last season.

Top-10s at San Remo, Dwars door Vlaanderen, and the Tour of Flanders marked him out as one of the few capable of hanging with the “bigs” of the bergs and bumps of the early spring.

Now a father after the birth of his first child this winter, Powless carries a more considered approach into the second full classics campaign of his career, and the assurance of a four-year deal with his American team.

“I don’t have as many bullets as them [Van Aert, Van der Poel] so I have to be very smart about the choices I make,” he said.

Powless told Wielerflits that last spring taught him what works best both when he’s racing and when he’s not.

Combine the two, and he’s possibly the best-placed of a crop of top U.S. racers to light up the European north in the coming months.

“[I learned last year] not to push it too hard between races,” Powless told Wielerflits. “Even though it’s only one-day racing, it still takes a lot out of you.

“I think I may have tried to try to train too hard between some of the races and it caught up with me,” he said. “So hopefully this year I can manage that better.”

Powless best-placed of USA’s new class of the classics?

Powless emerged as one of the top riders to watch last spring.

He lines out Saturday for Strade Bianche in the orbit of top favorites like Tadej Pogačar and Tom Pidcock, and will be one of EF Education-EasyPost’s best hopes in a team loaded with potential.

Richard Carapaz, Alberto Bettiol, and Ben Healy will all roll out of the team’s pink-clad team bus in Siena alongside Powless on Saturday morning.

Powless only raced Strade Bianche once, way back in 2019, and so his classic dream may more likely be realized later in the spring.

Either way, the 27-year-old could be the leading contender to scoop USA’s first big classics win in 21 years, when Tyler Hamilton won Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Matteo Jorgenson, Quinn Simmons, Magnus Sheffield, and neopro sensation Luke Lamperti also carry every possibility of breaking the U.S drought, while Derek Gee carries big hopes for Canada.

Powless however finds himself perfectly in the center of a Venn Diagram of team leadership, confidence, and experience as he rides into his all-in one-day program.

“The cobbled classics and the monuments are special races,” Powless said late last year. “It feels like I am knocking at the door of one of those races, so I hope I can nail one.”

The time is now for Neilson Powless.

Neilson Powless 2024 schedule:

Strade Bianche
Milan San Remo
E3 Saxo Classic [TBC]
Dwars door Vlaanderen [TBC]
Tour of Flanders [TBC]
Amstel Gold Race
Flèche Wallonne
Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Tour de France