{"id":1762,"date":"2026-02-13T15:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1762\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:18:18","slug":"everything-before-belgium-is-a-bonus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/1762\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEverything before Belgium is a bonus\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neilson Powless<\/a> was one of the breakout <\/a>stories of last season, winning Dwars door Vlaanderen against a Visma | Lease a Bike trio. The American of EF Education\u2013EasyPost has now revealed a tightly-packed spring programme for 2026 \u2014 even after a winter knee injury and tendonitis.Powless will start his season at the Tour de la Provence, where he is not expecting to chase a headline result straight away. \u201cI took a longer off season already just to be around to help out with our second baby. 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,\u201d Powless explained on his team\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt just took a really long time for that to heal. I didn\u2019t need any surgeries but it was just injured in an area that would get agitated even from just walking so it was a difficult one to fix but now it\u2019s all good. I\u2019m four weeks into training and just trying to build my fitness up again\u2026 but at the same time it pushed my goals back by a couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"Neilson<\/p>\n

Powless returns from injury.<\/p>\n

Powless wants to peak in Belgium<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally we weren\u2019t sure how long it was going to take but now we have a pretty clear plan of when we think I can start racing for the win,\u201d Powless continued. After Provence, he plans a short training block before heading to Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m starting in Provence, and then I\u2019m planning to go race in Italy at Trofeo Laigueglia and then Strade Bianche, Milano\u2013Torino, and Milano\u2013Sanremo,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter the Italian block, I will head up to Belgium for almost all of the classics<\/a>. That\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key goal, Powless stresses, is arriving in top shape for the northern block. \u201cI\u2019m really hoping that by the time I get to the Flemish classics, I\u2019ll be firing on all cylinders and ready to compete for the win. Everything before that, it\u2019s nice if I can reach competitive shape but we\u2019re not really expecting it until I get up to Belgium.\u201d<\/p>\n

His intended run is extensive: E3 Saxo Classic, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders, Paris\u2013Roubaix, then into the Ardennes with Amstel Gold Race, La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne and Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a long block and I\u2019d like to race all of those,\u201d Powless added. \u201cI think this time off the bike will just give me more freshness for the classics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"powless<\/p>\n

Powless at the victory of 2025.<\/p>\n

Powless on his \u201clongest injury ever\u201d<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old admitted the winter setback was a new experience in terms of duration. \u201cThis is the longest injury I\u2019ve had to come back from. I\u2019ve had minor bouts of tendonitis, but in the past I\u2019ve only needed to take three or four days off and then it would go away. This was the longest time I\u2019ve had to take off and I think it was the longest time in my life I\u2019ve ever taken off from sports so that\u2019s pretty wild,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, there is clear relief that he avoided surgery and can race again. \u201cI knew this was something that was going to heal, it was just going to take some and that was ok to accept. I didn\u2019t need any surgeries or anything invasive which was great. It just took a long time\u2026 but I was pretty accepting about shifting my professional ambitions,\u201d Powless explained.<\/p>\n

And once he is back in the bunch, the motivation takes care of itself. \u201cRacing is what excites me the most\u2026 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\u2019s no rush like a bike race can give you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neilson Powless was one of the breakout stories of last season, winning Dwars door Vlaanderen against a Visma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,1681,1682,1683,1684],"class_list":{"0":"post-1762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-classics","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-ef-education-easypost","12":"tag-neilson-powless"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}