Neilson Powless, the 2025 Tour de France competitor, has undergone a significant mental shift in his approach to professional cycling. At 28, he has transitioned from an all-in mentality to a more strategic approach, one that has served him well in his five-year contract with the team. While many young, talented professional bicycle riders employ the mentality of constantly going after every chance, Powless has learned to pick and choose the days that offer the best opportunities. He acknowledges that this approach has taken time to develop, especially with the influence of age and experience.
“The guys who win stages are the ones who focus a bit more on something where they know they can have their best chance. It just comes with age and experience. I think all of the young guys start the same way, just going crazy from the first week and going crazy on every stage until there’s nothing left, and then they’re barely finishing. Now, I am to the point where I can pick and choose the days a little better. I can be a better teammate when needed because of that.”
Powless’ journey to this point began in 2018, when he joined cycling’s top level after finishing ninth overall in the now-defunct Tour of California. The following year, he competed in his first Grand Tour at the Tour of Spain. In 2020, he became the first citizen of a Native American nation to participate in the Tour de France.
- 2020: First Grand Tour participation at the Tour of Spain
- 2020: First Tour de France participation, finishing 26th overall
- 2022: Tour de Suisse, finishing 4th overall
- 2022: One-day races in October, winning the Gran Piemonte in Borgomanero, Italy, and the Japan Cup in Utsunomiya, Japan
Powless’ progress toward this year’s Tour de France began last October, when he won two one-day, late-season races. Winter training produced the training tests of his career, although they were curtailed by a lingering bout of mononucleosis. “Every time I finish a season strong, I am confident all winter,” Powless says. “I am not really trying to force anything. I just go out and get done what my coach tells me to do and I don’t try to overdo it.”
Support Role
Powless will again compete in the Tour de France in a support role for Richard Carapaz, the Ecuadorian specialist in cycling’s three-week races, called Grand Tours. This year’s Tour de France will begin in Lille and for the first time in five years will remain entirely in France, with stops in iconic locales, including Dunkirk, Normandy, and Toulouse.
- Lille, France: Starting point of the 2025 Tour de France
- Dunkirk, France: Stage 2 of the Tour de France
- Normandy, France: Stage 3 of the Tour de France
- Toulouse, France: Stage 4 of the Tour de France
Powless is also competing in his second season as a father. He met his wife, Frances Chae-Powless, via online dating while Powless was in Sacramento after the 2019 season. The couple anticipated a long-distance developing relationship, but COVID-19 altered Powless’ return to Europe. “I really love being a husband and a father now,” Powless says. “I’m more grounded; It’s helped me become a better cyclist. But as far as when I am on the bike, I am pretty locked in. I am not thinking about anything but the race.”
Family Life
Powless and his wife Frances live in Nice, France, an international cycling hub, and in Houston, Texas, where Frances was born and raised. Their daughter, Charlotte Ann, was born on September 23, 2023, in Houston. Powless’ parents, Jack and Janette, also have a strong connection to cycling. Jack Powless excelled in triathlons, winning age-group Ironman Triathlon titles, while Janette Allred competed for Guam as a marathoner in the 1992 Summer Olympics. A Stronger Cyclist
Powless is known as a “puncher” in cycling parlance, a rider who can maintain a strategic acceleration for several minutes with hopes of developing a sustained gap over the rest of the field or within a small breakaway group. “I feel like on any type of terrain, I am a well-balanced rider,” Powless says. “I really enjoy bike racing no matter what the course profile or what kind of rider you need to be.”
Empowering Native American Youth
Powless is also the coach and co-founder of the Dream Catcher Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering Native American youth through sports. “He’s just gotten smarter and more tactical,” says Shayna Powless, Neilson’s sister and a retired pro cyclist. “He’s very much a jack-of-all-trades, an all-arounder. He’s not a pure sprinter or a pure climber. But he can climb very well and he can climb better than he can sprint.”
A New Era
The 2025 Tour de France will be a significant milestone for Powless, marking his sixth participation in the event. As he looks to the future, Powless is confident in his abilities and his team’s support. “I’ve had a lot of success with the team and I am getting physically better every year,” Powless says. “The only time I am not performing well is if I am sick or injured. It’s never because of a failure of equipment or anything like that or a failure of tactics.
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