Wout van Aert wants to forget that drama day — but Powless uses it as motivation against Pogacar & Co.

Dwars door Vlaanderen 2025 turned out to be one of the strangest finales of the year. Visma | Lease a Bike looked set, as in their best days, with three men away and heading toward victory — but when Wout van Aert was supposed to seal the deal, Neilson Powless, the only odd man out, stuck a wrench in their plans. A crucial win, the American now calls it in Wielerrevue.

Powless had sat glued to Van Aert’s wheel throughout Dwars door Vlaanderen, and when it came to the sprint, he had surprisingly more left — enough to pull off the victory. It was in many ways reminiscent of how Mattias Skjelmose would win a few weeks later in a sprint against Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel in the Amstel Gold Race.

Even in a spring dominated by Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel in the big classics, Powless and Skjelmose showed that — even in 2025 — you still have to race until the finish. That maybe everything must align, but Powless is convinced other riders will still get their chances in 2026.

In the interview, Powless calls the dominance of especially UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Pogacar "discouraging". The team won 95 times in 2025, and Pogacar won nearly everywhere he started. The big wins were last season largely divvied up among a very small elite group of stars — something that doesn’t do the sustainability of our sport any good.

Still, Powless refuses to give up. “My win in Dwars door Vlaanderen and also Mattias’ in the Amstel Gold Race were a reminder of our sport’s unpredictability. Those victories were encouraging for the whole peloton. In the spring I also didn’t think I would win a spring classic, but I did.”

And even if the absolute stars in the peloton reign supreme and riders like Powless and company only get to go along — according to the American, that also has its charm. “I would love for Pogacar to evolve into the greatest of all time — something that in a few years will be near-certain.”

“It would be a privilege to stand on the podium with him. And who knows, maybe one day even beat him,” says Powless, who again pointed out Dwars door Vlaanderen and the sprint that Van Aert likely wants to forget forever. “Even when the absolute top favorites are there, all kinds of things can happen in a race. A small chance is also a chance.”

And what about Pogacar? Powless advises: “I hope he doesn’t take those good legs for granted. It won’t be like this forever.”