  We prove that if $G$ is a sparse graph --- it belongs to a fixed class of
bounded expansion $\mathcal{C}$ --- and $d\in \mathbb{N}$ is fixed, then the
$d$th power of $G$ can be partitioned into cliques so that contracting each of
these clique to a single vertex again yields a sparse graph. This result has
several graph-theoretic and algorithmic consequences for powers of sparse
graphs, including bounds on their subchromatic number and efficient
approximation algorithms for the chromatic number and the clique number.
