Neilson Powless


Neilson Hunter Powless is an American and Oneida Nation professional road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam. Powless is the first US Native American to compete in the Tour de France.
𝕏 NPowless

Career

Early career 2018–2021

Powless turned professional with in 2018. He competed in his first Grand Tour at the 2019 Vuelta a España. Powless, along with Jumbo-Visma teammates Robert Gesink, George Bennett and Sepp Kuss, each finished between 27th and 33rd in the overall standings en route to assisting Primož Roglič in winning the race.
The next season he moved to. He was named on the startlist for the 2020 Tour de France. He rode in support of GC contender and team leader Rigoberto Urán. 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, in July he won the 2021 Clásica de San Sebastián, becoming only the second American to do so, and late in the season he finished 5th in the UCI world championship.

2022–present

During the 2022 Tour de Suisse 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, joining Nairo Quintana 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 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 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 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.
He ended the 2022 season with a solo victory at the Japan Cup.
Powless started the 2023 season with success, winning both the Étoile de Bessèges stage race and the single-day Grand Prix La Marseillaise. He then saw multiple top 10 finishes in the spring World Tour races, including the Tour of Flanders, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Paris–Nice and Milan–San Remo.
He was again selected to race in the Tour de France, where he led the mountains classification for all but one of the first thirteen stages. He ultimately lost the lead to Giulio Ciccone and finished fourth.
In April 2025 Powless won Dwars door Vlaanderen, outsprinting Van Aert and two of the latter's team-mates from a four rider breakaway group to take victory after Van Aert suffered cramp in the final. Powless described the result as his biggest win, and earned comparisons with the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad where Ian Stannard similarly defeated three riders in the leading group to win.

Personal life

His mother Jen Allred ran the marathon for Guam at the 1992 Summer Olympics. His older sister is fellow professional racing cyclist Shayna Powless. Powless married Frances Powless in 2020. The couple are parents of two children: Charlotte Ann Powless, born September 2023, and Remy Young Powless, born October 2025.

Major results

;2016
;2017
;2018
;2019
;2020
;2021
;2022
;2023
;2024
;2025

Classics results timeline

—Did not compete
DNFDid not finish