Neilson has put the bout of pneumonia that kept him out of action at the start of the season behind him, and after his strong performance at the Volta ao Algarve, where he finished sixth overall and seventh in the uphill time trial, he is riding well. He is now resting up at home with his daughter and wife, before heading to Trofeo Laigueglia and Paris-Nice, where he wants to compete with the best on GC and go for a stage win, while building his form for his main goals for the spring.

Paris-Nice, the iconic eight-day stage race from the heart of France to his European hometown on the Riviera, will be his final test before the spring classics. Neilson will then focus on a full slate of classic one-day races in March and April, with Milano-Sanremo, Dwars door Vlaanderen and De Ronde on the books, before he goes for victory in the Ardennes.

“I'm really excited for Paris-Nice,” Neilson says. “I just hope that I have the legs I want so that I can be at the front of that race, because it is a fun one to race from the front. We have a really good team and the TTT is going to be a big, big goal for us. And then, I'd like to fight for the podium. If I have the legs that I had in the TT on the last day in Portugal, I'm pretty sure I can be competitive on GC and go for the win on one of the stages.”

Neilson is especially excited for the final few days of the race, which will take the peloton into the mountains behind his house on the Côte d’Azur. He hopes that competing on the roads where he trains on a daily basis will give him an advantage.

“It is an intense race and that last stage is especially intense,” Neilson says, “but it gives me a lot of confidence to know what's around every corner, which corners you need to be in position for and for which corners it's fine to relax. I know every climb down there and I am really excited for it.”

Once the final stage is wrapped up, Neilson will soft-pedal straight home to his apartment for a good recovery meal and a solid rest in Nice. If all goes to plan, he will have a great block of racing ahead of him.

Taking on all of the big classics from Milano-Sanremo through Liège-Bastogne-Liège is ambitious. Neilson will have to hold his best form for over a month and be ready to compete on very different terrain, from the cobbles in Flanders to steep asphalt climbs in the Ardennes. That’s a challenge that he wants to take on and one he thinks he can meet.

“I'd like to race as much as possible because I would much rather be a part of these races than watch them on TV,” he says. “Growing up, I never thought of myself as a sprinter or a real classics rider, because I was focused on the climbs, but as the years have gone by in the WorldTour, I have started to realize that I have a pretty good explosive engine. I don't have a sprint that's going to win field sprints, but I have a really good, repeatable top end. That is what you need for the classics. You just need to be able to do a thousand watts a hundred times over in a day and still be able to time trial if you need to. These are the most exciting races for me.”

To hold his fitness, Neilson will stick to a regime. Over the past couple of seasons, he has learned some hard lessons after going flat at key moments. He won’t make those same mistakes again.

“It’s a pretty long stretch that I want to be good for, but I've got a pretty decent plan to try to hit all the goals I want to hit this spring,” he says. “I've just been on top of things more with making sure I'm always in a decent energy balance and fueled well for training. I raised the bar for myself. I am always able to get to a really high level, but it's just a matter of how long I can sustain it. And that comes down to how well I can take care of myself and recover between races. Hopefully, this year I'll be able to string it together and go to the cobbles and the Ardennes at my best.”

First, Neilson is focused on Milano-Sanremo. In 2023, he was in the running for the Italian monument until the last couple of hundred meters of the Poggio, when a moment’s hesitation on that final climb cost him the chance to race for the win.

“I was just a bit too relaxed when I hit the Poggio,” Neilson says. “It is tough because the Poggio is over in three and a half, four minutes, so there's really no time to wait around. You know exactly where the moves are going to come and when. There aren't a lot of races in cycling where you can predict that exact moment, but Sanremo is one that's almost always the same. I think it's so cool to have a crux point of a race like that. It is so cool to watch on TV, all the build up to that moment. You know exactly when that moment's going to happen and then it's just about who's going to be the one to break it open. That is pretty exciting. In the race, it is really intense, with every second building closer to that one moment. I really like that intensity. Last time, I saw a gap starting to open and I gambled for maybe five seconds that somebody else would close it and those five seconds are really the ones that kept me out of the front group. I need to be more on top of things this time, because I should be able to ride with the best up the Poggio. I just need to put myself in a position to do that, fully commit, and be able to jump on things straight away when they go.”

After Sanremo, Neilson will travel to Flanders to race Dwars door Vlaanderen and De Ronde – his favorite classic of them all. The Flemish monument is the race that he would love to win most. Back in 2023, Neilson surprised himself with a fifth place in his debut, after finishing third the week before at Dwars.

“I got the idea in my head to start racing on the cobbles after racing on the stones in the Tour de France the year we had the cobble stage and I got into the breakaway,” Neilson says. “Those weren't quite Roubaix cobbles – it wasn’t Arenberg – but those cobbles were just about as rough as any, and I remember feeling solid and enjoying that day. From that moment forward, I was basically like, ‘I'd like to give it a try.’ I went to Dwars door Vlaanderen and cracked things open with the podium there. That was really eye opening. I was like, ‘Man, I guess I do have what it takes.’ Flanders is a race that demands a complete cyclist. That is the best way I could describe myself. I'm not the best climber and I'm not the best sprinter and I am not the best time trialist, but I'm pretty good at all of them, so I feel like I'm very complete. That is a blessing and a curse, but at Flanders, I think it is a blessing.”

At Flanders, Neilson will have former winner Kasper Asgreen by his side. He thinks the two of them can put their rivals in real trouble in the finale.

“Our ambition is to win,” Neilson says. “We've got Kasper on the team this year. He has won Flanders and is always up there. He was in the group with me that year I got fifth. Having a few cards to play is really key to success in that race. I mean, I'd love to win, but if there are two of us up there, it's even better. That means two chances for the team to get a win. We'll have more than just me and him, obviously, but it sure is nice to have a former winner of the race on your team.”

Neilson will then have to change gears fast, as he switches from elbows-out, sprint-into-corners, full-gas racing over the cobbles to the longer, steeper climbs in the Ardennes. Neilson is scheduled to race the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Of the three, Amstel will always have a special place in his heart.

“I have a lot more nostalgia and probably enjoyment from racing that one, because I spent quite a few years in that region in Sittard with the USA national team and that area feels kind of special to me,” he says.

Liège is the big one though. Back in 2022, Neilson finished eighth in the 250-kilometer race up and down the Ardennes and he thinks that he has what it takes to match the best on climbs like Côte de la Redoute and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.

“Hopefully, this year I’ll be able to string it together and go to the cobbles and the Ardennes with a really high level,” Neilson says. “Liège is a Monument and if I were to win that one it would change my life more than the other two.”

It wouldn’t change his life too much though. Neilson knows that there will be highs and lows for him this classics season, as he tries to race right through the cobbles and the Ardennes, but his family keeps him grounded. Win or lose, they’ll be there for him, ready to welcome him home.

“It is really nice to come home to a happy daughter and wife,” he says. “We celebrate with Chinese food and White Lotus. Those are the things that keep me going.”

From the start of Paris-Nice this Sunday, Neilson wants to keep going right until Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Trofeo Laigueglia

Paris-Nice

Milano-Sanremo

Dwars door Vlaanderen

Ronde van Vlaanderen

Amstel Gold Race

Flèche Wallonne

Liège-Bastogne-Liège