Neilson Powless returns to racing at Eschborn-Frankfurt

The American missed his spring classics campaign due to a nagging knee injury, but is now healthy and strong and excited to get back into the peloton before US nationals and his final training camps ahead of the Tour de France. Neilson kept fit by swimming in the Mediterranean near his home in Nice and doing rehab work with our team’s medical pros. He’s kept optimistic by spending time with his family. Now, he is ready to get back to competition.

We caught up with Neilson ahead of Eschborn-Frankfurt.

In the beginning, we weren't really sure what was causing my knee pain, but I had some inflammation in my patella. With the team and the medical staff, we worked through a lot of different possible reasons as to why I was getting inflammation. It seemed like it was a combination of a few different things—possibly the crash at Gran Camiño and compensation from that crash afterwards, and then maybe a bit of an aggressive bike position as well, but with a bit of rest, rehab and minor position changes, I think we've found the solution. It was kind of a touch and go process. Having an inflamed patella tendon is sort of tricky. There's not a clear timeline for healing. It's just a matter of waiting until the inflammation goes away. So I tried to stay fit by swimming and doing rehab exercises from the physios on the team, and everything that I was doing seems to be helping and supporting, supporting my knee. Now, I'm in a place where I'm healthy. I haven't felt any knee pain now for about three or four weeks. I've been able to train for about two weeks. Unfortunately, I did get sick. So that was another slight delay. But then this last week I had a good uninterrupted week of training. Hopefully it's all systems go from here.

It was really disappointing to miss the classics. I was really hoping to be there in Belgium racing, but I just had to see it as an opportunity to cheer on my teammates and spend a bit of extra time with my family, with Frances and Charlotte. That's not always a privilege we get to have—to have that much time at home. I tried to make the most of it and just tried to enjoy watching my teammates and cheering for my teammates. It was tough to watch from home, but I just tried to stay positive and just keep telling myself that it was out of my control. At least I've got some strong teammates to watch and it was still an exciting time of year. Luckily I was able to continue exercising. I just wasn't able to ride. So, I was swimming a lot. I feel like exercise is sort of like therapy for me and being able to swim and get out of the house each day, helped a lot. Frances and Charlotte were always so supportive and happy to have me around. I just tried to be a good, good dad in that time and help out around the house and keep myself busy. Still being able to get outside and swim was very helpful and just really kept me in a good mood.

Not for a few years yet!

I'm not really 100 percent sure where I'll be fitness wise for Eschborn-Frankfurt, but I'll be racing tomorrow, and I'm really excited to just get back in the peloton and get back with my teammates and feel the rhythm of a race again. On the bright side, this whole situation has opened up a window for me to race nationals and that's really exciting. I didn't think I was going to be able to race nationals, but now it's in the cards. That is actually something I'm really looking forward to. Nobody wants any injury, but I've got things to look forward to now, which is really nice.

It means a lot. We don't have too many opportunities to race in the States. Nationals, especially, is always a really fun event. It’s not a very high stress race, but it's always a hard race. I’ve always just had so much fun racing nationals, even though I haven't won yet. Maybe this year will finally be the year. That would be awesome. It would be pretty amazing to rep the Stars and Stripes. That's a dream for every cyclist, to have their national championship jersey on while they're racing all over the world.

Pretty good! I think my body came healthy right at the perfect time to have a nice, steady build for the Tour. I'm not rushing anything right now, but the fitness is coming along pretty well. My prep going into the Tour should still remain the same. Hopefully, this has just given me some added freshness.I'll be in the States for a couple weeks for nationals, and then I'll head back to Europe for some altitude training. After that, I will be racing Tour de Suisse. And then after Suisse, hopefully the Tour de France!