The American Who Nearly Got the Yellow Jersey—Get to Know Neilson Powless

In an alternate timeline, Neilson Powless jumps clear of the breakaway in Stage 6 of the Tour de France and solos to victory over his rivals. The 10-second time bonus for the win, plus those flying legs in the last kilometer, puts the EF Education First-Easypost rider in the race’s yellow jersey by just one second.

Alas, in this timeline, that was not to be. Powless made the break on the race’s fabled and feared cobblestone stage. He worked all day and dutifully attacked inside that last kilometer. But instead, Edvald Boassen-Hagen of TotalEnergies hauls him back. Gassed from the effort, Powless falls slightly behind as Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) barely outsprints Intermarché-Wanty’s Taco van der Hoorn for the win. And most cruelly, the infernal chase behind led by Wout van Aert denies Powless the chance for yellow.

Not that it seems to bother him all that much. He was thinking about a stage win, not the yellow jersey, he told VeloNews afterward. But that might start to change now.

You’re forgiven if Powless is a little unknown to you. There are seven Americans in this year’s Tour, and top billing goes of course to Sepp Kuss and to Brandon McNulty, both on account of their own considerable abilities and their proximity to peloton superstars. McNulty rides for the UAE Team Emirates outfit of two-time defending champion Tadej Pogačar, while Kuss—a stage winner here last year—is a top lieutenant for the Jumbo-Visma pair of Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard.

One step down from Kuss and McNulty in terms of fame for U.S. fans is an intriguing quartet of talented young pros (McNulty himself is only 24), racing a little under the radar and far from home: all-arounders like Movistar’s Matteo Jorgenson (23) and DSM’s Kevin Vermaerke (21); the Classics specialist Quinn Simmons (21) on Trek Segafredo; and of course Powless. (The seventh American Tour entrant, Astana’s Joe Dombrowski, is 31).

Against all that it’s easy to miss that Powless, just 25 himself, is already in his fifth season on the WorldTour. It’s easy to miss because for all his talent, Powless isn’t usually on the top step of the podium. But if that’s your only gauge, it’s easy to miss his talent: ability that makes him EF’s second protected GC rider behind team leader and former Tour podium finisher Rigoberto Uran.

Powless started out racing X-Terra off-road triathlons and then mountain bikes with NICA in Roseville, California, along with his older sister, Shayna Powless before both switched to road racing (Shayna now races for the powerhouse criterium team L39ion). While on the highly regarded Axeon development team, Neilson served solid notice of his talents with a string of top finishes at home and abroad, in races like the Under-23 edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege and a stage win in the Tour de l’Avenir, the so-called Tour de France for young riders. That led to a WorldTour deal with Jumbo alongside fellow first-year pro Kuss.

Powless and Kuss—who is two years older but started road racing relatively late—had been on a fairly similar trajectory to that point. But on Jumbo, their paths diverged some. Kuss quickly developed into a top climbing support rider for Roglič, helping his team captain to the 2019 Vuelta title and winning a stage along the way. Powless was also part of that 2019 Vuelta team, but while Kuss got a new contract and a raise, Powless left, instead signing with EF Pro Cycling for the 2020 season.

The move paid off, with a Tour de France ride where Powless—a member of the Oneida tribe and first Native American to race the Tour—nearly notched a stage win on two separate days out of breakaways. Then, last season, his sole pro win: a stunning victory in the prestigious San Sebastian Klasikoa, a tough one-day race in Spain’s hilly Basque Country. The finish was bonkers: Powless making selection after selection on a wet, nasty day. Attacking on a soggy, foggy final climb and getting caught by Matej Mohorič, the double-stage winner at the Tour de France. Powless just ducking inside of Mohorič as the Slovenian clips a curb on the descent and the two other riders in the break crash. And then Powless, improbably, amazingly, edging Mohorič and Quick-Step’s Mikkel Honoré in a photo finish.

After the finish line, Powless was ebullient, fist-bumping spectators, bear-hugging teammates and staff, and wearing a giant “Isn’t this freakin’ cool?!” grin as he made his way to the podium to collect the txapela, the wide, traditional Basque beret that is the race trophy.

If you wrote that off as a freak victory, you’d be missing his other top results: fifth that year in the World Road Race. Eighth this season in the arduous Liege-Bastogne-Liege. And fourth overall last month at the Tour de Suisse, including yet another near-miss on Stage 5, when he was narrowly outsprinted by Bora’s Aleksandr Vlasov. It’s Vlasov, by the way, who is quietly tipped as the sneakiest challenger to two-time winner Pogačar. But it would be a mistake to discount Powless.

Truth be told, Powless wasn’t on anyone’s list of Tour contenders at the start, even with his recent results. His history at the Grand Tours is as a support rider. But that might be exactly why he’s a good candidate for a top finish here: no one expects it, except maybe his own team. “Powless is not considered a contender to finish on the podium once the Tour finishes in Paris,” was the terse verdict from NBC Sports after his near-miss for yellow. But speaking before the Roubaix stage, EF team director Matti Breschel voiced strong confidence in their young all-arounder. “I’m not too nervous about Neilson to be honest,” he said. “He’s a great bike handler, and he’s got a great team to back him up.” Back him up. Not the other way around.

It’s pretty clear that Uran and Powless are options 1A and 1B for EF. And the team has a history of unlooked-for success in Grand Tours: Uran’s second-place finish at the Tour in 2017, or Ryder Hesjedal’s stunning Giro d’Italia upset win in 2012. In both cases, they started off anonymously before rising late in the first week of the race. Neither was taken as a serious threat at first.

So maybe it’s better, long-term, for Powless to be in second now, for people to discount him. It’s the closest an American has been to yellow since 2018, when Tejay van Garderen was tied for first on overall time with a teammate after the team time trial. And no American has actually worn yellow since 2006 (or 1991, if you factor in the stripped results from the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation of doping on the US Postal Service team).

The chances are coming, starting with Thursday’s uphill finish to Longwy. But they’re also slim. Powless is sandwiched on the GC between van Aert—a possible threat for the Stage 6 win if his wrist (and legs) are OK after Stage 5’s crash and cobble odyssey—and Pogačar, the odds-on favorite to take yellow Friday with the first true summit finish on the “super” Planches des Belles Filles climb.

Expect him to give it a shot. One of Powless’s strengths is his day-in, day-out durability. And paradoxically, he might still be reasonably fresh: being in the break can be (relatively speaking) an easier ride on the cobbles than fighting for position in the pack. His EF team could certainly use the results: while Magnus Cort’s stint in the KoM jersey has been a bright spot, EF has just five wins this year and is sitting perilously close to being relegated out of the sport’s top division next season. A stage win? Yellow? That would solve a lot of problems.

Even if Powless does manage that improbable double feat, it’s unlikely he’ll be taken as a serious threat. Riders will say all the right and gracious things about him, of course. They always do. But deep down, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard and the rest won’t really believe that Powless can match them in the mountains. Which will make it even more interesting if, when we get to those mountains, he does.

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