All POWER to him
During the 18th century, it was popular for young men to travel across Europe in search of art and culture, visiting countries like Italy and Germany. This adventure was known as a Grand Tour, but the resemblance between modern three-week stage races and the trips of young aristocratic men 200 years ago ends there. For the modern cyclist, the opportunities to take in the culture of the surrounding area as they’re spinning by at 40km/h while in the middle of three weeks of suffering are few and far between.
This doesn’t stop Neilson Powless. The young EF Pro Cycling rider explains: “During stages I’m kind of making mental notes and even writing down some notes of places I want to go visit again afterwards, because I rode through towns and I’m like, ‘That castle looked awesome, and that town looked really nice; this would be a nice weekend getaway at some point, I want to come back here.’”
He’s just casually, at his first Tour de France, aged 24, thinking about where he’d like to go on holiday. And it’s not like Powless was taking it easy. He
