This year, Nielson Powles enters his fifth season in Europe with EF Education Easy Post, but not with Sunday's Grand Prix de la Marseillaise. He is once again turning his attention to one-day races for 2024, this time with a strong focus on a Belgian race or two with cobblestones.

He is 27 years old and his career is still on the upswing. Last year he won the French GP La Marseillaise, took the GC title in Etoile de Besseges, finished third overall in the Tour des Alpes, and sixth in Paris-Nice. In the six major one-day races of the spring, he finished third in the Douars de Flanderen and in the top 10 in Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders.

"Winning at Monument is probably the biggest goal I have right now. It's a realistic goal and I think it's achievable. It's never easy and it's very, very hard to win," Powles told Cycling News with a nervous laugh.

Since his first professional victory at the 2021 Clasica San Sebastián, Paules has made rapid progress on the punchy, rugged terrain, finishing fourth twice in the 2022 Tour de France in stages that included the L'Alpe d'Huez summit. However, the only time Paules was able to taste yellow was on stage 5 over the cobblestones of Wallers-Ahrenberg, where he missed the leader's jersey by one second. Powles has also come close to glory at the World Championships, finishing 11th in Glasgow last year on a course that suited his talents.

"I've been leading the big one-day races for about two years now, starting with my win in San Sebastian. That gave me confidence and I started chasing a few more results. Since then, I haven't been able to get to the front in every one-day race, but in most of the big races I've entered, I've been able to be part of the race in the final. So it's a fun goal to chase and I'm definitely going to focus on that for the next few years."

His 2023 season ended with a second-place finish at the Maryland Cycling Classic, but his life continued to get better and better. He became a father, and in early fall he and his wife Frances welcomed a new daughter, Charlotte. He also bought a townhouse near Houston, Texas, and accepted a four-year contract extension with the U.S.-based EF Education Easy Post World Tour team.

"My wife grew up in Texas. Once I found out that Frances was pregnant, I wanted to have a little bit of family support during the off-season," he said of his busy off-season and how fatherhood has motivated him to feel more secure with the team. Being an American on an American team gives you a sense of home that you just don't get on other teams." Everyone is on the same page. I'm really happy here."

He said he would welcome a return to the team at the Tour de France, but "GC is not on my radar. At the Tour de France, he said he would first support a healthy Richard Karapas as team leader and then take liberties with stage opportunities. What intrigued him was another Olympic opportunity.

"The first peak of the year will be a cobbled classic at some point this spring. Hopefully I can win one of those. And the second peak is the Tour de France. The Tour de France and the Olympics are close together, so hopefully we can ride the same peak," Powles said.

For success this year, he said, the Paris Olympics will be a better challenge for Powles, who loves to climb, than the World Championships in Zurich, which he had heard was difficult to climb.

"If it's 15 minutes of hard [effort] the whole time, it could be difficult for me," Powles admitted. He said it was tough to compete against "explosive athletes" like Primoš Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.

"At the Olympics, I was able to find my niche on short, punchy climbs in the 2, 3, and 4 minute range. My repeatability within that time is good throughout the seven-hour race. My power doesn't diminish over that length. So in the Olympics, there are no big mountains in Paris, but if I have to do 20 short climbs, I think I'm a good fit."

Even if his first race of the new season is not named, he is proud of his recent season. While he had many accomplishments last season, Powles lists the top two among them.

"Number one was becoming a father. Second would be defending the jersey for 13 days and the Tour de France.

He shared several of those 13 polka-dot jerseys with his family, reserving one for his sister, Shayna Powles, a professional cyclist and founder of the Dreamcatcher Foundation, an organization that provides support programs for women and young children in Native American communities. ), said the jerseys were reserved for her. One of those jerseys should appear soon as a fundraiser for Dream Catcher.