Neilson Powless is a newly-discovered comet just entering cycling’s solar system. And like other surprise celestial objects, Neilson’s initial appearance at the Tour of California garnered awe and wonder. How was this fresh-faced, recent high school grad mixing it up with the world’s best in the biggest road race in North America? How does one who only recently gained the right to vote square off against the likes of Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, and the rest of the pro peloton, and finish the race wearing the inaugural Most Animal Classification Jersey?¹¹Not to mention the Young Rider’s Classification Jersey. This is the same classification that, by all accounts, is now more coveted than even the malloit jaune. So what does it take to be the human equivalent of a giant ball of ice hurtling through the cosmos at unimaginable speeds? What does it take to be an ascendant star? What kind of sparkling water do you drink? What music do you listen to? What hopes do you hope? Manual for Speed dares to ask the tuff questions and we hope you have the gumption to read the answers!

I would have to say LaCroix has to be my favorite brand of sparkling water. I’m not sure if there is any specific reason, I guess just because it’s always around. It comes in so many different flavours and my mom normally keeps our garage fridge stocked with a few different flavours all the time.

I’ll rate my addiction at an 8. When I’m home, I would rather walk out to the garage fridge probably about 30 steps from the living room (that’s 60 steps round trip! A lot for a cyclist, multiple times a day) rather than going to the fridge three steps away inside the house for normal water.

Well the turtle is the animal that represents my tribe (Oneida). We have (non-living) turtles all over our house, and my favorite toy as a kid was a turtle for some reason… I guess they’ve just been a presence in my life for as long as i can remember.

I definitely do not chili powder. I like mangoes because they are sweet. I can’t travel with real mangoes so I opt for the dried version, but I want the closest thing to a mango, and putting chili powder on it makes it less like a mango…

Starbucks is good when I travel because it’s old reliable, you always know what you’re getting. If I’m going to Starbucks without eating first, I’ll normally get a slow roasted ham and swiss with oatmeal along with a grande soy milk latte. Soy latte because it’s sweeter than a normal latte, which means after it’s made I don’t have to waste time putting anything else into it. Simple!

He was pretty much exactly what I thought he would be like. Wearing plain (probably very expensive) clothing, with a surprised, sleepy, look on his face as sixteen dudes in lycra surrounded him and his two gigantic bodyguards. He didn’t say much, other than a half-hearted “Sup” to our Latvian Krists, which soon made him Insta-famous.

To be honest I don’t particularly enjoy listening to Justin. I guess “What Do You Mean?” is okay since it’s got a decent beat.

Walking into the cryo chamber is quite a shock, especially coming from the outside temperature of 110 degrees in Roseville. Any thoughts you have going into the chamber are quickly changed to “How much longer do i have to stay in here for.”

That’s an interesting thought… I wonder if someone will try it.

I’d like to see people flying. I’ve seen water-propelled jet packs, but those can only be used over water. We can’t be too far away from being able to fly anywhere.

Apparently I went to Guam when I was less than a year old, but I cant remember any of it. My mom²²Jen Allred, women’s marathon: 36th place in 3:14.45. always talks about how great it is so hopefully I’ll go sometime soon to check it out.

Haha, no none of that. Although my family and I do adhere to many Native American practices such as smudging and enjoying the occasional Pow Wow.

I jump into a pool from time to time to make sure I haven’t forgotten how to swim, but my arms have grown quite a bit weaker so it’s a bit of a struggle to swim out to the “no swim” buoy anymore. My favorite stroke used to be front crawl, but when I was training with a swim team in prep for XTERRA worlds in 2012, they taught me the correct form for butterfly. Once I nailed that down, it quickly became my new favorite stroke.

I’ve probably only seen Bob’s Burgers once, and I don’t see myself watching it (willingly) in the near future.

Every time I hear ‘swagger’ I think of the scene in 22 Jump Street when Ice Cube is talking about “Vietnamese Jesus drippin’ swagoo.” That will be one of my favorite quotes for a long time.

Geoffrey Curran.

Simon Antone, my Great-Great-Great-Grandpa, a Native American who was jumped by four white men because he was a Native American. They cut his eye out and left him for dead in the desert. He survived, then went on to kill all four of the men who tried to kill him. My dad had his face painted on his old Harley, and we have a portrait of him in our house.

Kermit sipping tea. That’s a fun one.

There are a lot of Nicknames. Many shouldn’t be made public, but a few can.

• Reed: “Mama Bear”
• Ruben: “Toro”
• Geoffery: “Currancy”
• Chad: “Chad Bag”
• Eddie: “Luck of the Irish”
• Will: “Wonderbody”

The rest are a secret.

“I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones. Geoffrey Curran and I sang this song on karaoke; I had never heard it before but he told me it would be fun. I think the background band turned our mics off after twenty seconds when they realized I was just shouting the lyrics after they had already passed on screen.

I don’t think all are. Most millennials are fed up because they don’t use it properly. Others try because they want to stay “cool.” Either way there will always be people who refuse to use social media, regardless of age, and I respect that

Savory. Eating sweet things makes me think I’m getting cavities since I don’t have the strongest teeth. Nevertheless, I enjoy both.

“Tao”… only if I want to embarrass myself. Hah!

Definitely riding away from others on a climb. It seems like the most genuine. There’s no arguing, you were just straight-up stronger than anyone else. But this doesn’t mean I don’t try for all the others. A win’s a win!

I try not to think about what people say to me in a race after the fact unless it would help me. In a bike race, people say a lot of things–good and bad–even if they don’t mean them. If someone is rude or yells at me in a race, I normally forget about it when my head hits the pillow that night.

Pretty general, I think most people have been in the same situation. In criteriums, I get into breaks a lot where some of the riders can’t take strong enough pulls to keep us away, yet they still try to pull through because they are trying to help, or get a result. You have to tell them they straight up aren’t strong enough, and they need to sit on, because they would be helping more back there than they would be in the rotation.

None. I grew up in the heat so the heat doesn’t bother me so much. Windy days just mean you can crush a lot of spirits by positioning yourself well. Wet conditions just mean by being at the front you can give yourself a better chance at winning, because crashes happen more often in the wet.

I wouldn’t call it one specific move but about four moves together. In the Joe Martin stage race, I was 3rd in GC, seven seconds down, going into the final day which was a criterium. There were four time bonuses including the finish. Each sprint was 3-2-1 seconds, with the finish being 10-6-3. I went for the first sprint a lap too early after my teammate Geoffrey gave me a leadout–as I sprinted around him to the line I was amazed there weren’t any other teams around us. I could hear spectators yelling it was a lap too early, and my heart sank, but I looked back and saw a huge gap to the Silber leadout train, and decided to solo the lap to take three seconds. Unfortunately both GC rivals in front of me picked up seconds as well, so I was still six seconds down. The time sprint in the middle of the race was taken by riders going for a breakaway. The final time sprint before the finish I finished 2nd, but again, my GC rivals were there, so I needed six seconds to take the win, which meant I needed to either win or get second, and even that might not have been enough if my GC rivals picked up time at the finish as well. I had to try anyway, and hope neither of the riders in front of me on GC would finish in the top three. UHC was running a leadout and with one lap to go, Geoffery fought them to take control. After we came around them, I heard a crash. We had moved up just in time, because only the front ten riders made it through the crash. Geoffery put his head down and delivered me to the base of the climb, and I knew both of my GC rivals were there as well as two other favourites for the stage. Travis McCabe sprinted early, then Carlos Alzate followed my wheel as I sprinted. I was happy to see neither of the GC riders going for the line, but I still needed to beat one or both of McCabe and Alzate. For most of the climb we were side-by-side, over the top. McCabe won, but I finished second, gaining enough time to put me into the Green, White, and Yellow Jersey. It was an epic day.

I almost crashed out of a break during the second stage of California by looking back to see where the chasers were, overlapping wheels with a rider in front of me. Luckily it was on an uphill, and it was slow enough to where I could unclip and throw myself back up quick enough to not crash myself or anyone else. Goes without saying I was still yelled at by few riders in the group, so I ducked my head and drifted to the back.

Last year during the spring racing season in the Tour de Bretagne Cycliste, we finished the first stage on a rainy, cold circuit. I was still very fresh in road cycling, and was figuring out how to bump and lean on other riders. With two laps to go, I was on the right side of the road hiding from wind coming from the left when the whole peloton shifted. It seemed like there was no more room left for me on the road and even though it felt like I was putting all of my weight into the rider next to me, it looked like he had four riders pushing him in the opposite direction. I looked right to see a massive ditch with weeds so high I couldn’t tell how deep it went. It looked better that hitting pavement though, so I judged it for how deep I thought it went and right as I was getting thrown off the road, I aimed for the thickest weeds I could see and sent myself into the green abyss. Luckily, it was about as deep as I thought, and I didn’t even have to dismount until I came to a stop. I was still in the caravan when I hopped back onto the road, so I made it back pretty quick. I haven’t crashed since then.