EF Education celebrate the return of American Nielsen Powless on Wednesday: 'Hungry for competition'

We haven't really heard anything from him since February, but Neilson Powless will finally return to racing on Wednesday. The American rider from EF Education-EasyPost is finally back after a long rehabilitation process; he’s eager to get going, but he also knows full well that he needs to be realistic about what lies ahead.

Inflamed tissue in his left knee was the culprit for Powless. The 29-year-old rider from Eglin underwent surgery for it in February, and the procedure was successful. Afterward, he had to recover for 8 to 12 weeks anyway, which meant his beloved spring season was off the table from the start.

Powless has now been given the green light to race again, and he’ll be doing so starting Wednesday in the Tour of Austria. He’s finally back. “I haven’t raced since the Tour de Provence in February, but I had surgery that month, and it’s been quite a long process,” he says in a press release.

First of all, as part of his rehabilitation, he had to stay off the bike for no less than five weeks. “And when I started again, we took it slow with my recovery. That basically meant cycling for 20 to 30 minutes a day for about two weeks. We gradually built up the intensity, and for the past eight or nine weeks, I’ve been cycling pain-free.”

And so it now appears that the injury is completely healed. “My knee is handling the strain very well, and we’ve been able to set a few goals,” said Powless, who is eager to get back to racing. “I’ll resume my season in Austria, and I think this is a great race to get back into the swing of things. I’m looking forward to riding in the peloton again and feeling like a cyclist for EF Education-EasyPost once more.”

He isn’t going into it with too many expectations. “I’m definitely hungry for competition, but the main goal is to finish the race in one piece and come out of it in better shape than when I went in. There isn’t a huge amount of pressure right now, but it’s a good, tough race, and I hope that on a few days that suit me, I can contend for stage wins.”

"I'm not quite in good enough shape yet to be thinking about the overall standings, but this race should help me get into shape for the second half of the season," continues Powless, who can't yet say what his schedule for the rest of 2026 will look like.

"The team has been incredibly supportive throughout this entire process. The only pressure I’ve felt is the pressure I’ve put on myself to be able to race again. The team put a lot of thought into my recovery plan and considered what I needed. They always chose the safe route and took things as patiently as possible to ensure I made a full recovery. Because of that, I feel really good now,” the American concluded.