Racing

Neilson Powless finishes seventh at Milano-Sanremo

After a great team performance, the American came up just short on the Poggio

March 19, 2023

It might not show on the results sheet, but sports director Charly Wegelius said the 2023 Milano Sanremo was one of the best team performances he has ever seen from our squad.

Neilson Powless finished seventh in the first Monument of the season—a very solid result, though we were hoping for more. A moment’s hesitation cost Neilson the chance to try to go with the winning group at the top of the Poggio.

“Unfortunately the race got away from me before I knew it was going,” Neilson says. “Trentin opened up a gap slightly, so that Tadej could go. He did it so sneakily that I didn’t even realize the gap was opening. I don’t think anyone noticed till it was too big to close. As soon as there are ten meters, you have to push a lot of wind to close that. It is a shame. It is maybe just a lack of focus for me. Physically I had a really good ride on the Poggio. And I was looking for opportunities at the finish, but had to wait for the sprint. This is the first time I’ve raced the finale of Milan Sanremo, so hopefully I have learned something for next time. Today definitely gave me motivation for the upcoming classics. I had some power left in my legs, so I was pretty happy with that after such a long day.”

Neilson is not going to waste time wondering what might have been. He is already looking forward to his upcoming races. His next big goal is the Tour of Flanders. He will then turn his focus to the hilly classics in the Ardennes. Neilson is also excited to come back to Italy's spring Monument and play his cards better in the next showdown in the hills above Sanremo, because he and his teammates did everything right for 288 kilometers before that fateful split second on the Poggio’s last ramps.

“The guys did an amazing job in the last 30 or 40 kilometers, just keeping Magnus and me in position,” Neilson says. “Especially Alberto. He was pretty incredible coming into the Poggio. I think we were in the top five or six. That is pretty much the dream: being top five into the Poggio in Milano-Sanremo. It was amazing to be shepherded by him.”

By the end of yesterday's race, Magnus Cort didn’t quite have the legs that have brought him two victories so far this season.

“The last hundred kilometers were very intense,” Magnus says. “Especially in the lead up to the Cipressa and the Poggio. In the end, I was tired. I think everybody was, but the boys did a very, very nice job keeping me and Neilson out of the worst part of the stress. I was super happy for that. In the end, I was missing a little bit, but luckily we had Neilson up there in the mix to do a good result, but we can still hope for more next year. It is always hard when you are there, and the legs are not quite there, but the team rode really well. I’m a bit sorry that they did such a good job and I couldn’t really finish it off, but that is how it is sometimes.”

It is. We will learn from our mistakes, but our team's performance at Milano-Sanremo bodes very well for the rest of the classics.

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Milano Sanremo

Mar. 18, 2023

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Neilson Powless

When Neilson Powless started racing X-Terra triathlons with his sister back home in Northern California, he just wanted to spend time outside and rip around the trails near his house. His first love was mountain-biking. It was his best discipline in those off-road triathlons, and when he got to high-school, there were all sorts of chances for him to compete in California’s mountain-bike league. Soon, he was travelling with the US national team, racing junior world cups and championships against the world’s most talented mountain-bikers. Race in and race out, Neilson proved he was one of them.

Then he decided he wanted to have a go on the road.

Neilson has progressed steadily since he turned pro in 2018, thanks to his hard-work and diligent approach to training. In 2020, Neilson Powless became the first tribally recognized Native North American to race the Tour de France. The next year, our rising American star won Spain’s greatest one-day race, the Clásica San Sebastián, and finished fifth at the world championships in Belgium. Neilson was stellar in 2022. After a strong campaign in the Ardennes, he finished fourth on GC at the Tour de Suisse and lit up the Tour de France. He finished the year off with a victory at the Japan Cup.

The 2023 season was his best yet. Neilson won his first race of the year: the Grand Prix Cycliste de Marseille. He then won the overall at Étoile de Bèsseges and stormed the Flemish classics, finishing third at Dwars door Vlaanderen and fifth at De Ronde in his debut campaign on the cobbles. At the Tour, he captured hearts with a stellar run in the King of the Mountains jersey.

Neilson lives in Nice, France with his wife and baby girl during the racing season. He enjoys exploring their new city and relaxing on the beach after hard rides through the Alps.

If he can find time in his schedule, Neilson would like to get back to his roots, and do some off-road alternative racing in 2024.

Full profile

Alberto Bettiol

Alberto Bettiol has always been a winner. He started racing around the hills of Tuscany when he was five and won his second-ever race in his hometown of Castelfiorentino. He has been bringing home bouquets of flowers ever since.

His coaches and supporters always believed in his talent. Alberto was a strong junior and U23 rider, who signed his first professional contract with our team in 2014. But Alberto wanted to become a champion. He had grown up watching the classics and the Giro d’Italia with his father, a former footballer, and dreamed of winning the sport’s greatest races.

In 2019, he won his first Monument. Alberto’s victory in the Tour of Flanders that year changed his life. It gave him the confidence that he could beat the best riders in the world. He backed it up with an impressive string of results, including a stunning solo stage victory at the 2021 Giro d’Italia.

In 2022, Alberto earned podium places on stages of the Tour de France, Tour de Suisse, and Deutschland Tour.

He now splits his time between Lugano, Switzerland and Castelfiorentino. He enjoys all of the opportunities to travel that cycling now provides him, but is always happy to return to the Tuscan hills where he got started.