Neilson Powless (born September 3, 1996) is an American professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for

UCI WorldTeam A UCI WorldTeam (2015–present), previously UCI ProTeam (2005–2014), is the term used by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to name a cycling team of the highest category in professional road cycling, the UCI World Tour or UCI ProTour ...

. Powless, who is Oneida, is the first US Native American to compete in the Tour de France.

Career

In August 2019, he was named in the startlist for the

2019 Vuelta a España The 2019 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race that took place in Spain, Andorra and France between 24 August and 15 September 2019. The race was the 74th edition of the Vuelta a España and is the final Grand Tour of t ...

. Powless, along with Jumbo-Visma teammates

Robert Gesink Robert Gesink (born 31 May 1986) is a Dutch professional cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . His major victories include the 2012 Tour of California, the 2011 Tour of Oman and the 2010 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. Gesink also ...

, George Bennett and Sepp Kuss, each finished between 27th and 33rd in the overall standings en route to assisting

Primož Roglič Primož Roglič (; born 29 October 1989) is a Slovenian racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . He started as a ski jumper and switched to cycling several years after an accident suffered at Planica. At the 2017 Tour de France, Roglič be ...

in winning the race. The next season he changed teams to EF Pro Cycling. In August 2020, he was named on the startlist for the

2020 Tour de France The 2020 Tour de France was the 107th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. Originally scheduled to start on 27 June 2020, it was postponed until 29 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The race began ...

. He rode in support of GC contender and team leader Rigoberto Uran. During this tour he got involved in a breakaway and earned a top 5 stage finish. Following his strong debut, Powless again was named as part of the EF Team for the 2021 Tour de France. Early in the season he finished 5th in the

2021 UAE Tour The 2021 UAE Tour was a road cycling stage race that took place between 21 and 27 February 2021 in the United Arab Emirates. It was the third edition of the UAE Tour and the first race of the 2021 UCI World Tour. Teams All nineteen UCI Worl ...

, in July he won the

2021 Clásica de San Sebastián The 2021 Clásica de San Sebastián was a road cycling one-day race that took place on 31 July 2021 in San Sebastián, Spain. It was the 40th edition of the Clásica de San Sebastián and the twenty-second event of the 2021 UCI World Tour. It ...

, becoming only the second American to do so, and late in the season he finished 5th in the UCI world championship. During the

2022 Tour de Suisse The 2022 Tour de Suisse was a road cycling stage race that took place between 12 and 19 June 2022 in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It was the 85th edition of the Tour de Suisse and the 22nd event of the 2022 UCI World Tour. Teams All eigh ...

Powless was active in several breakaways and stayed with the overall leaders throughout the entire race finishing in 4th place overall. He was added to the start list for the

2022 Tour de France The 2022 Tour de France was the 109th edition of the Tour de France. It started in Copenhagen, Denmark on 1 July 2022 and ended with the final stage on the Champs-Élysées, Paris on 24 July 2022. Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard () won the general clas ...

, joining

Nairo Quintana Nairo Alexánder Quintana Rojas, Order of Boyacá, ODB, (born 4 February 1990) is a Colombian racing cyclist, who rides for UCI ProSeries, UCI ProTeam . Nicknamed "Nairoman" and "El Cóndor de los Andes", Quintana is a specialist climber, known ...

as the other Indigenous American rider to start the race. On stage 5 of the Tour, a particularly brutal stage with many cobbled sections, he joined a breakaway that survived to the finish. Overall leader

Wout Van Aert Wout van Aert (born 15 September 1994) is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He won the men's elite race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He joined in M ...

crashed multiple times giving Powless the chance to move into the yellow jersey. Van Aert was able to limit his losses, but Powless moved into 2nd place overall. At +0:13 this was the closest an American had come to wearing the leader's jersey since

Tejay van Garderen Tejay van Garderen (born August 12, 1988) is an American former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2008 and 2021 for the , , and . Following his retirement as a cyclist, van Garderen became a directeur sportif for ...

tied for the lead in the first week of the 2018 edition. The next day he came within +0:04 of the lead, but

Tadej Pogačar Tadej Pogačar (; born 21 September 1998) is a Slovenian cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He won the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Tour de France, winning three different jerseys during each Tour, a feat unseen in nearly four deca ...

seized control of the race and on stage 7 Powless began to fall back. Powless was active in other breakaways throughout the race including being the only rider to attack on kilometer zero of stage 12, which culminated on Alpe d'Huez. Several dozen riders attacked throughout the day but very few survived ahead of the GC favorites. Powless did survive, and placed fourth, he also advanced as high as 3rd place in the mountains classification by the start of the third week. He ultimately finished the Tour in 13th, the highest ranked rider on the team and the only Team EF rider inside the top 25.

Personal life

His mother Jen Allred ran the marathon for

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. His older sister is fellow professional racing cyclist Shayna Powless.

Major results

;2016 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Joe Martin Stage Race : 1st Stage 8

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independen ...

: 1st Stage 3 Redlands Bicycle Classic : 1st Stage 3a ( ITT)

Tour de Beauce Tour de Beauce is a men's elite professional road bicycle racing multi-day event held each June in the Beauce region of Quebec, Canada since 1986. It is the oldest stage-race in North America, and is a Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)-rated 2. ...

: 1st Stage 1 ( TTT)

Olympia's Tour The Olympia's Tour is a cycling stage race held in the Netherlands. History A.S.C. Olympia was founded in Amsterdam on 27 November 1898. It ran one-day races but wanted a race through all the Netherlands. The first Olympia's Tour was in 1909, w ...

: 9th Overall

Tour of California The Tour of California (officially sponsored as the Amgen Tour of California) was an annual professional road cycling stage race on the UCI World Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour that ran from 2006 to 2019. It was the only event on the ...

::1st

Young rider classification ;2017 : National Under-23 Road Championships ::1st MaillotUSA

Road race ::3rd

Time trial In many racing sports, an athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

: 1st Gran Premio Palio del Recioto : National Road Championships ::2nd Road race ::3rd

: 3rd Overall

Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux is a Belgian cycling road race. It was first held in 1996. Since 2005, the race has been organised as a 2.2 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing compe ...

::1st Stage 3a ( ITT) : 4th Overall

Tour of Utah Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

::1st

Young rider classification : 6th Overall

Giro Ciclistico d'Italia Giro d'Italia Giovani Under 23, also known as Baby Giro, Girobio or Giro Ciclistico d'Italia, is an Italian road bicycle racing amateur stage race created in 1970. Giro d'Italia Giovani Under 23 is the most important race on Italy's U23 calendar, ...

::1st Stage 1 : 6th

Giro del Belvedere The Giro del Belvedere is a professional cycling race held annually in the Treviso province, Italy. It has been part of the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport ...

;2018 : 7th Overall

Tour of Britain The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after the S ...

::1st Stage 5 ( TTT) : 9th Overall Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali : 10th

Raiffeisen Grand Prix The Raiffeisen Grand Prix was a cycling race held annually in Austria between 1996 and 2019. It was held as part of the UCI Europe Tour as a category 1.2 The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world's governing body in the sport of bicycle ...

;2019 : National Road Championships ::2nd

::3rd Road race : 7th Overall

Volta ao Algarve The Volta ao Algarve (Portuguese; en, Tour of the Algarve) is a road bicycle racing stage race held annually in the Algarve, Portugal. Since 2017, it has been organised as a 2.HC event on the UCI Europe Tour. The race became part of the new UCI ...

: 7th

Japan Cup The is one of the most prestigious horse races in Japan. It is contested on the last Sunday of November, post time of 15:40 at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu, Tokyo at a distance of 2400 meters (about miles) run under weight for age conditions with ...

;2020 : 4th Overall

Herald Sun Tour The Herald Sun Tour is an Australian professional bicycle race held in Melbourne and provincial Victoria, sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The first tour was held in October 1952 as a six-day event. It is now held annually ...

;2021 : 1st

Clásica de San Sebastián The Donostia-Donostia Klasikoa — Clásica San Sebastián-San Sebastián (San Sebastián Classic) is a one-day professional men's bicycle road race in northern Spain that has been held every summer since 1981 in San Sebastián. It is the m ...

: 5th Road race,

UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and a mixed team relay. Events ...

: 5th Overall

UAE Tour The UAE Tour ( ar, جولة الإمارات) is a road cycling stage race in the United Arab Emirates. It was first held in 2019 as part of the UCI World Tour. It was created as a result of the merging of the Abu Dhabi Tour and the Dubai Tour. ...

: 6th

Coppa Sabatini The Coppa Sabatini is a late season road bicycle race held annually in Province of Pisa, Italy. From 2005 to 2019, the race was organised as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing R ...

;2022 : 1st

: 3rd

Maryland Cycling Classic The Maryland Cycling Classic is a one-day road cycling race in the state of Maryland. The inaugural race was September 4, 2022. The category 1.Pro race is a part of the UCI America Tour and the UCI ProSeries calendars. History The race was ori ...

: 4th Overall

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

: 8th

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five '' Monuments'' of the European professional ...

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powless, Neilson 1996 births Living people American male cyclists Oneida people People from Roseville, California Cyclists from California Native American sportspeople