About 100 yards past the finish line, Nielson Powles stood in the middle of the road, shaking his head in disbelief and smiling at the same time. The debutant of the Tour de Flanders has that effect, especially when he arrives in Oudenaarde in fifth place, nearly 100 kilometers from the front.

The ronde is intoxicating in a kind of madness.

"These races are ......"

"The races are not only the most exciting, but also the most exciting. Powles said as the knot of reporters gathered around him began to loosen. 'Many times today I thought it was over.'

While winner Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) and runner-up Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck) proved untouchable in the finale, Powles narrowly missed the podium, finishing in the chase group by 1:12.

Paules took third place in the Dwars door Hlaanderen last Wednesday to set the stage for the cobbled classic. Not to mention his confident ride on the pavé at last year's Tour de France, the EF Education-Easypost rider is a strong contender for the Tour de Flanders.

It certainly felt that way when a series of early crashes forced Paules to navigate these uncharted waters without his usual guide.

"I knew I was feeling good, but after two crashes and losing my computer, all I could rely on was what I could get from the radio," Powles said.

"I didn't know how far the race was going and when the climb would come. I just had to keep going the way I came. I had to constantly ask Andreas Kreier what was coming, and I had to ask the guys around me how far along the race was."

Debut races in the Tour de Flanders are confusing at best. Most riders feel as if they are following the race rather than participating in it. But Powles had the wisdom to realize that the best option was to get ahead of the race.

"Sometimes I got a little lost, but that kind of intuitive racing is probably the best," said this North American athlete. Along with "shadow favorites" Stefan Kühn and Kasper Asgreen, he joined a 10-man breakaway that cleared Molenberg with 100 kilometers to go.

At one point they built a nearly 3-minute lead over Pogachar, Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma), and Van der Pol, but that lead quickly dwindled as the big three climbed the second climb of the Kwaremont.

Pogachar and Van der Pol, who were first and second at the finish, broke into the lead group on the second climb of Cuveremont, but Powles put up more resistance than the others. However, Paulez showed stronger resistance than the others. Paules rode to Oudenaarde in a solid chase group, only to be beaten to the podium by the pure speed of Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Van Aert.

"I knew that if I wanted to win today, I had to take risks. When [Pogachar and Van Aert] came up to me, I did my best in Quaremont. When [Pogachar and Van Aert] caught me, I tried my best to stay with them in Quaremont. I might have lost a few positions to the guys in front of me, but in the end they came up behind me at a very fast pace. ...... But I feel like we're making steady progress every year, so hopefully one day we can get there."

When Powles turned pro at Jumbo Visma in 2018, he looked like he would be a Grand Tour contender or a deluxe mountain domestique. But since moving to EF ahead of the 2020 season, his career has taken a more diverse path. Endurance may be his core physical trait, but it has yielded high results in all terrains.

In the opening months of 2023, few riders have performed on as many different stages as Powles. He has already won the Grand Prize of Marseillaise and Etoile de Besseges, placed 6th overall in Paris-Nice, and 7th in Milan-San Remo. As evidence, this week's cobbled classics added to his repertoire.

"I've loved watching the Tour de Flanders since I was a little girl, but I never thought I would be one of the right guys for this race," Powles said.

"But I love cycling, and racing at the head of monuments, especially beautiful monuments like Flanders, is ...... It's thrilling."