{"id":2038136,"date":"2026-07-11T06:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2038136"},"modified":"2026-07-11T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:56:13","slug":"neilson-powless-was-devastated-to-miss-the-tour-de-france-he-channeled-his-disappointment-into-a-huge-comeback-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2038136","title":{"rendered":"Neilson Powless Was Devastated to Miss the Tour de France. He Channeled His Disappointment Into a Huge Comeback Win."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Z8A_4216.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-wrap fp-contentTarget\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\"><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"fp-remove flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Updated July 11, 2026 01:05AM<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-base-loose\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Neilson Powless made up for missing the Tour de France for the first time in 6 years by winning his first race in 5 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"aspect-video\">\n<p>The U.S. racer outsprinted Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at the Tour of Austria on Friday for a huge comeback victory after the start of his season was torpedoed by a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very, very satisfied, very happy,\u201d Powless said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came here with the ambition of winning a stage, and I knew it was going to be 50-50 if I was good enough after such a long time without racing,\u201d Powless said at the finishline. \u201cBut my knee\u2019s holding up, and I feel really strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Powless and Arrieta attacked from the main break of the day in stage 3 of the Austrian Tour before Powless dominated the uphill sprint.<\/p>\n<p>After 13 months without a win, victory tasted sweet for the 29-year-old.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder -mt-[30px] mb-[30px] flex min-h-[250px] w-full items-center justify-center\">\n<div class=\"w-full \">\n<div id=\"in-content-leaderboard-in-content-leaderboard-I0-P0-CMI0\" class=\"flex justify-center text-left\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to be winning bike races again. I wasn\u2019t sure if it was going to happen at all this year,\u201d Powless said. \u201cBut here I am, the first win, so it feels really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-embed\">\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DanR09jtoDa\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Powless misses Tour de France for first time since 2020<\/h2>\n<p>Powless has been a key presence in the small contingent of U.S. racers who\u2019ve been selected for recent editions of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n<p>He debuted at the Tour with EF Pro Cycling in 2020 to become the first tribally recognized Native North American to make the race.<\/p>\n<p>He started and finished every edition since and collected top-10 finishes and time in the polka dot jersey along the way.<\/p>\n<p>This year was different.<\/p>\n<p>Powless was whacked with knee pain in February and has been in the infirmary rehabilitating from corrective surgery ever since.<\/p>\n<p>His dream to debut at Paris-Roubaix had to wait, and the Tour was off the agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told my coach that I just really wanted to win a bike race this year,\u201d Powless said Friday. \u201cI didn\u2019t care where it was or how it happened.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder-wrapper relative w-full border-t border-b border-border-light col-span-full my-3 md:col-span-10 md:col-start-2\">\n<div class=\"mb-[30px] min-h-[30px] text-center\"><span class=\"font-utility-4 font-medium tracking-[1px] text-neutral-500 uppercase\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-placeholder -mt-[30px] mb-[30px] flex min-h-[250px] w-full items-center justify-center\">\n<div class=\"w-full \">\n<div id=\"in-content-leaderboard-in-content-leaderboard-I1-P0-CMI0\" class=\"flex justify-center text-left\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt just feels really good to already achieve that goal. I feel like I can finally put this nasty chapter behind me with surgery and a rehab that was really complicated. I feel so incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Powless\u2019 program for the rest of 2026 is to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>However, he just made himself a strong candidate for racing the Canadian GPs with EF Education-EasyPost and the Montr\u00e9al road world championships with USA Cycling.<\/p>\n<p>Gregor M\u00fchlberger (Decathlon CMA-CGM) leads the 5-day Tour of Austria into stage 4 with a 1:31 gap over USA\u2019s Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Emirates XRG).<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><span hidden aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-base-loose flex flex-wrap gap-(--spacing-base)\"><!--$--><\/p>\n<div class=\"fp-remove flex items-center justify-start gap-(--spacing-base-tight)\"><span class=\"font-utility-2 font-bold text-primary\">Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n<p><!--\/$--><\/div>\n<div class=\"pub-date font-utility-2 text-secondary\">Updated July 11, 2026 01:05AM<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-base-loose\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/powless-wins-on-comeback-after-tour-de-france-disappointment\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Z8A_4216.jpg&#8221;] Jim Cotton Updated July 11, 2026 01:05AM Neilson Powless made up for missing the Tour de France for the first time in 6 years by winning his first race in 5 months. The U.S. racer outsprinted Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at the Tour of Austria on Friday for a huge comeback [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2038136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2038136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2038136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2038136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2038136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}