“I paced it pretty much exactly the way I had planned it, so in that respect I am super happy with my performance”, Powless said. “Moving up a few places in the overall standings was a nice bonus on top of my performance. Yesterday wasn’t quite what I expected based on the numbers I had shown in training, but every day is a new opportunity, and the team really believed in me to put in a strong ride today. That gave me some confidence to really commit. Tomorrow, we are all in for Dylan to win a stage, and during the final day, I’ll give it everything to retain my position in the GC."

Sports director Nico Verhoeven saw Powless ride a great time trial. “Neilson is our man for the general classification in this race. He did a very good time trial and climbed to eighth place in the standings. This is an excellent achievement among these competitors. The other guys came through the day really well regarding tomorrow’s stage. Then we’ll go all in for a sprint with Dylan.”