'Bull in a china shop' Powless extends at EF and reveals opportunistic goals for 2026

EF Education-EasyPost has managed to extend the contract of one of its leaders, Neilson Powless, through 2029. The Nice-based American transferred from Jumbo-Visma to Jonathan Vaughters' team in 2020, so - if all goes well - he will at least complete 10 years there.

Powless switched to the pros as a tour rider, but found his definitive calling with the pink formation with the classic work. He already won Clasica San Sebastian in 2021, only to add to that in iconic fashion this year's Dwars door Vlaanderen after knocking off Visma | Lease a Bike trident Matteo Jorgenson, Tiesj Benoot and Wout van Aert. 

'I don't think I ever would have realized that I could be a classics rider until I joined this team,” Neilson says. “This team is famous for its outside-of-the-box tactics. Letting me go to the classics, or the way Ben raced into the yellow jersey at the Tour, or just the way we race the Tour every year, shows that. It makes it a really fun team to race for. Our tactics are always exciting and there are a lot of opportunities here for a lot of guys. That has helped me progress. I have found my niche in cycling here. Being opportunistic in hard, hard races has really paid off. That's the way I've learned to race and the way I want to keep racing. This team is just the perfect environment for that.”  

“The classics embody cycling at its purest,” Neilson says. “You are just all in on that one day. Your body has to be so strong to be able to handle the distance. And there are a hundred different ways you could try to win the race. Obviously, being the strongest gives you the best chance. But, the tactics in the classics are just so intriguing and so exciting to me.'

''It's like a chess match the whole day for five or six hours. You're constantly running through the different ways you can try to chop up the race and have the race unfold in your favor, whether you're trying to put your team on the front for a specific section to put pressure on guys when they're not expecting it, or trying to go into a breakaway earlier than expected to try and catch the favorites off guard. For people who really understand cycling, I think the tactics at the classics are just the most exciting.”

“I've transitioned into this opportunistic one-day racer, who's able to race on almost any kind of terrain – cobblestones, climbing, flat, circuit races, or just super long point-to-points like Sanremo,” Neilson says. “I think I have developed into a really complete rider during my time on this team. The way that we go to races and try to achieve results has brought that out of me. I am really happy and proud of the kind of rider I have become.'

''I never thought in a million years that I would try to win a cobbled classic, but it happened this year, and now I am chomping at the bit to back it up and build a spring around Monuments racing. I haven't won a Monument yet. And that's definitely a goal that I want to hit. But, just being able to be in the mix of every Monument I've started shows the completeness and the diversity of the athlete that I have become. It makes bike racing super fun, because I can go to every race and get involved in the action.”

Team owner Jonathan Vaughters is obviously also pleased with Powless' contract extension. '“We all know that Neilson’s work ethic is basically second to none,” Vaughters says. “He's going to train as hard as he possibly can, until the day comes when he can no longer race a bike. That is so in his nature. I have no doubts that his performance will continue to be excellent.

Slowly but surely, he is learning real race craft too. Neilson was sort of a bull in a china shop in years past, using his power to fix problems. He's learning to be a bike racer now. His race craft and his ability to tactically read a race has improved considerably. That is going to help his performance over the long term. He will be able to win more races, because he knows how to be a better bike racer now than he did before.”.