Provence, France – Neilson Powless is back in the peloton, but the American rider acknowledges he’s not yet firing on all cylinders as he begins his 2026 campaign with EF Education-EasyPost at the Tour de la Provence. After a disrupted off-season due to a knee injury and subsequent tendonitis, Powless is initially focused on supporting his teammates, Michael Leonard and Luke Lamperti, as they chase stage wins in France.
The 29-year-old Powless, now in his ninth WorldTour season and seventh with EF Education-EasyPost, is shifting his professional ambition towards mentorship. “I’m shifting professional ambition to ‘share some of my knowledge’ with a group of riders between 20-23,” he said in a team press release. He’s aiming to build form throughout the spring classics, with a long-term goal of peak performance for the Flemish and Ardennes races.
“I’m starting in Provence, and then I’m planning to go race in Italy at Trofeo Laigueglia and then Strade Bianche, Milano-Torino, and Milano-San Remo,” Powless outlined his early season schedule. “They’re all races that are quite close to where I live in Nice. I can drive to most of them, which is great. After the Italian block, I will head up to Belgium for almost all of the classics. That’s been the most motivating thing for me, being able to compete in the classics, from the Flemish classics to the Ardennes and Roubaix in between.”
The injury, sustained after the birth of his son Remy in October, significantly hampered his preparations. “I took a longer off season already just to be around to help out with our second baby,” Powless explained. “Our son, Remy, was born in October so I took five or six weeks off and then towards the end of that, I injured my knee and created tendonitis off the injury so I had to sort of halt my training.”
The recovery process proved lengthy, and frustrating. “It just took a really long time for that to heal. I didn’t need any surgeries but it was just injured in an area that would get agitated even from just walking. It was a difficult one to fix but now it’s all good,” he stated. He is currently four weeks into training, focusing on rebuilding his fitness.
Despite the setback, Powless remains ambitious. He has a proven track record in one-day events, with victories at the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa (2021), Gran Piemonte (2024), and a stunning win at the 2025 Dwars door Vlaanderen, where he outmaneuvered a formidable trio from Jumbo-Visma, including Wout van Aert. He’s also a two-time Japan Cup winner and has claimed victories at the GP Gippingen and GP Cycliste la Marseillaise.
Looking ahead, Powless has set a lofty target: winning a monument. “The goal is to win a monument,” he declared in a recent interview with Velo. He also expressed a desire to achieve a top-10 finish in Paris-Roubaix, a race he hasn’t yet contested. “I want to finish top 10 in Roubaix because I have finished top 10 in every monument plus World Championships and I think You’ll see only two or three riders in the last twenty years who have done that.”
He acknowledges the element of luck inherent in races like Roubaix. “If you look at [Mathieu] van der Poel you wouldn’t think there is any luck involved at all but in my opinion there is a lot of luck involved in terms of mechanicals and crashes. So, I want to start racing Roubaix because I would love to get a result there at some point in my career.”
The extended time off the bike presented a unique challenge for Powless, one that extended beyond the physical. “This is the longest injury I’ve had to come back from. I’ve had minor bouts of tendonitis, but in the past I’ve only needed to take three or four days off and then it would go away,” he said. “This was, I think, the longest time in my life I’ve ever taken off from sports, so that’s pretty wild. I was always into basketball or cross-country running or swimming or triathlon or mountain biking or, of course, road cycling.”
The biggest struggle wasn’t reshaping his racing goals, but the loss of a fundamental outlet. “The hardest thing for me was just not having the outlet that I’ve had for the rest of my life,” he admitted. The return to racing, even in a support role, is therefore a welcome one.
“I’m definitely very excited to get back to the peloton,” Powless said. “Races are very motivating for me.”
At the Tour de la Provence, Powless is focused on supporting Leonard and Lamperti. “It’s nice if I can reach competitive shape but we’re not really expecting it until I get up to Belgium,” he explained. “We’ve got E3, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold, Paris-Roubaix, La Flèche Wallonne, and Lèige-Bastogne-Lèige. It’s quite a long block and I’d like to race all of those.”
He believes the extended break may ultimately prove beneficial. “I think this time off the bike will just give me more freshness for the Classics.” Powless is embracing the team-oriented approach for now, finding motivation in the collective pursuit of success. “Racing is what excites me the most,” he said. “Getting back in the peloton and feeling that camaraderie with the team and going with a real purpose of what you want to get out of the week, all of that is really motivating for me. I like training and I like the process but there’s no rush like a bike race can give you.”
