Neilson Powless has finished just outside the top three in the prologue of the Tour of Utah. The 21-year-old American finished fourth. In the person of Pascal Eenkhoorn, Team LottoNL-Jumbo had a second rider in the top ten. He finished fifth. Powless and Eenkhoorn had to go to the podium ceremony, however, as best young rider and most aggressive rider respectively.

"It was a pretty short but very intense effort", thus Powless. "Even though it was only about a 6 minute effort, there was a lot of pacing involved. I think I paced it well. The only thing I was looking at was my time, just so I could base my effort solely off the way I was feeling. The strength of the team also showed today with two of us in the top 5. With me in fourth and Pascal in fifth, it gives us confidence going into the rest of the week!" 

Sports director Sierk-Jan de Haan was extremely pleased with the performance of his team. “We can be very happy with Neilson and Pascal in the top five. That’s good for the spirit. It also says something about the shape of the guys. We trained really hard for it. We also obtained two jerseys, which makes it even more beautiful. This is promising for the rest of the week.”

De Haan is in Utah with a very young team. “The goal is to get the most out of ourselves every day and to ride as a team, and then we’ll see where we stand in this field. It’s also ideal to learn how to deal with the tough conditions such as racing on altitude and racing on another continent. It’s good for the development of the riders. This way they also gain the necessary experience for the future.”