"Today is the day," Nielson Powles said Saturday morning at the start of stage 14 of the Tour de France. [EF Education-EasyPost's Nielson Powles told Cycling News in Saint-Étienne that after riding two of France's most famous cycling courses, Paris-Roubaix and the Alpe d'Huez, he hopes to ride in a breakaway group again.

"Throughout the whole Tour, this stage is probably my best profile and where I would place in the race," he said of the stage to Mende.

"The first battle is to get into the breakaway group, and if I can get in there, I'm pretty confident I can finish really strong."

The American, who finished fourth on stages 5 and 12, was also in front on the road to Mende along with two EF Easy Post teammates, Rigoberto Urán and Alberto Bettiol.

The team, however, was unable to claim a second win, and Bettiol was left in second place behind Michael Matthews after a dramatic finish on the Pass Laurent Jalabert (nicknamed the Pass de la Croix Neuve).

"We were so close," recalled Paules as he boarded the team bus four and a half hours after leaving Saint-Etienne.

"I don't think Bettiol originally thought I was in that good of shape. Once he realized how good his legs were, he started to focus on him. But he's a selfless teammate, so he really helped Rigo and me a lot.

"I'm really disappointed that he didn't win, but I'm happy that I was able to do something. At least I think I was able to contribute a little bit."

The day's break, which ultimately consisted of 23 riders, did not settle down from the start until the hard 40km race. For its part, second-place finisher Tadei Pogachar took the fight to Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo Visma on the first climb of the day, more than 180 km from the finish.

It was a long, hard battle to get to the front, and although the pack eventually closed to within 14 minutes of each other, it was a battle that Powles and the other breakaway hopefuls hoped to avoid for the rest of the Tour. Of course, he and EF Easy Post will try again.

"I don't think many were expecting that," Powles said. But it was a pretty exciting day and there was never a dull day in the Tour."

"I hope so. We had a good try today, but I hope we have more chances."

"I lost the GC earlier in the week, so I have a lot of freedom from here. I hope to try again when I get to the Pyrenees. Jumbo Visma will make the break, so we have a chance.

"By then, I expect Rigo to be at full throttle again. However, I'm going to try to make a run there as well."

Paules is third overall in the mountains with 35 points in the Alpe d'Huez. He gained two more points on Saturday, while KOM leader Simon Geschke took three points for a total of 43.

Powles, who had flirted with the yellow jersey early in the race (at one point he was within 4 seconds of it as a result of the first week's breakaway), will now be aiming for the polka-dot jersey in addition to his breakaway chances?

"I think there are a lot of riders within five points," he said. So it's going to be hard to set that as a goal right now."

"It was a great honor to be in the top 10 of the Tour de France and so close to the yellow jersey. I was so close to the yellow jersey.

"But every good thing has to come to an end sometime, and when we hit the real high mountain, it inevitably ended.