'I felt bad for him' - Powless relives Dwars door Vlaanderen blow to Van Aert

“I never thought I would beat Wout in a sprint,” he said to Het Nieuwsblad. “Only in the last fifty metres did it start to sink in that I was going to win. I just rode the sprint of my life. Twenty seconds at over a thousand watts. For a non-sprinter, that’s not bad.”

A year later, that moment still defines the conversation around Dwars door Vlaanderen, even if Powless himself is no longer part of the race. The 29-year-old American will not defend his title this week after undergoing knee surgery at the end of February, a setback that wiped out his entire spring. His last race came at the Tour de La Provence in February.

“I’m allowed to ride outside for an hour for the first time today,” the American said. “My recovery is going slower than expected and that’s frustrating. But I am making progress. There is still some scar tissue. The good thing is the pain is gone, and that’s what matters most.”

There is no target date yet for a return to racing. The Classics campaign had been a key objective, making the forced absence all the harder to accept.

 Still, reflection comes easily when he thinks back to the 2025 edition of Dwars door Vlaanderen.

“That was one of the best days I’ve ever had on the bike,” Powless said.

The victory did not follow a straightforward path. Illness had interrupted his winter, leaving him short of rhythm early in the season. Results in Milan-Sanremo and E3 failed to reflect his improving condition.Even lining up that day had been uncertain. 

“The team didn’t really want me to race it,” he explained. “I actually pushed to ride Gent-Wevelgem as well. The compromise was that I would skip Wevelgem but could ride Dwars. Looking back, that worked out pretty well.”

Once in the race, Powless chose to move ahead. “I like racing offensively,” he said. “It’s more comfortable to be ahead of the favourites because there is less stress before the cobbled sections and climbs. I prefer to stay ahead of the chaos.”

That chaos arrived after Visma | Lease a Bike shattered the peloton with 70km to go and Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot went clear and bridged across to the leaders.

Powless refused to yield and was the only one who could match the Visma riders.. “At that point I knew I had the legs not to crack. I didn’t want to get surprised, so I tried to set the tempo on the cobbles myself at times.”

In the end, he stunned the three Visma riders in the sprint in Waregem. What followed was disbelief. “I would have been happy with second,” he admitted. “I felt Wout was a bit nervous, but I couldn’t believe I had beaten him. First disbelief, then pure happiness. It felt like a childhood dream.”

There was also an awareness of what it meant for the rider he had beaten. “I felt bad for him,” Powless said. “I knew how much he wanted that win, how much he needed it. He knocks on the door so often and it doesn’t always open. But I also realised how many big results he has already had. My sympathy didn’t last that long.”

The two remain on good terms, though some topics are best left untouched according to Powless.

“We used to be teammates, and I have a lot of respect for him. I enjoy talking to Wout, but mostly about our kids and how to combine fatherhood with being a pro rider. Waregem is not a topic we bring up. For me it’s a great memory, for him something he would rather forget. And I understand that.”