Michael Woods is targeting a grand slam of stage wins across Grand Tours in 2024, with only a stage victory at the Giro d’Italia missing from the set. The Canadian climber added to his two Vuelta stage wins this summer with a famous Tour de France stage victory atop the Puy de Dôme in its first appearance at the race since 1988.
He’s decided to take another crack in 2024 at the Giro d'Italia, where he hasn’t raced since 2018 and narrowly missed out on a win to Tim Wellens on stage 4. If he achieves the feat he'll join the club of riders to win a stage at all three Grand Tours, joined this past season by Magnus Cort and Mads Pedersen.
Woods has extended with Israel-Premier Tech until 2025 and says he will retire with the Israeli team when he is no longer competing with the very best riders.
“It was a great season for me. Not my best from a consistency perspective, I think 2021 was my best season from start to finish, but the best result of my career was this season, at the Tour de France, and it’s a result I am really proud of,” said Woods in an interview with his team.
“I feel like I still am improving. There are still some things that I’d like to achieve as a rider. There are still some results that are missing from my palmarès that I want to go after.
“Winning this past year at the Tour de France really added some fuel to the fire, to the excitement of this season. I’ve never won a stage at the Giro. I finished second at a stage in 2018, which was the last time I did the Giro, but I’ve won two stages at the Vuelta, now with one at the Tour, I want to get a stage win at the Giro. So, it's a real motivator.”
Woods described the stage 9 triumph as “the best result of my career” and at 36 years old proved he was far from done yet with competing at the top level. Aside from his Tour de France stage win, Woods also won La Route d'Occitanie overall, finished fourth at La Flèche Wallonne and came sixth at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.
Having joined the WorldTour peloton late at 29 after injuries stunted his running career, Woods still believes he is improving and wants to fill in the results missing from his palmarès.
“One of the reasons why I extended with the team was that I still felt like I had more to give. If I don’t feel like I’m competing with the best riders in the world, then I don’t want to be racing anymore,” said Woods.
“I think life’s about pushing yourself and exploring and doing new things and trying new things and testing yourself. And if I’m not doing that here, then I want to move on.”
There was speculation towards the end of summer that Woods was out of contract after three seasons with Israel-Premier Tech, but this was quickly put to bed as the Canadian confirmed to multiple sources that he had a confirmed contract.
Woods has revealed his retirement contract was agreed with the team owner Sylvan Adams just over a year ago, and he credited Adams for playing a massive role in his career since he turned pro in 2013.
“I’m really lucky to have Sylvan Adams in my corner. He is one of the main reasons why I am a pro cyclist. He along with Paulo Saldanha, my coach and also head of performance for the team. Sylvan has backed me since 2013 and just played a massive role in my career,” said Woods.
“Just over a year ago we sat down to talk about extending and we basically just made a deal that I’m going to retire with this team. I’m going to retire when there’s no more left to give.
“Like I said, I don’t want to be racing my bike if I’m not performing at the highest level. I want to be excited about going to races and I am right now. So, we’re going to extend until I’m ready to be done.”
The Canadian recognised the privilege of having a secure contract to close out the final years of his career, but assured he wouldn’t get complacent with the hunger for results just as high as ever.
“It’s an amazing privilege to have that and know that I’m going to finish under my own power. Having been in the sport for eight years now, there’s a huge turnover in riders and you realize how most riders don’t have that luxury. I realize how lucky I am to have that support from Sylvan, that support from the team, but that being said, yeah, it’s really nice but it’s also a bit scary,” said Woods.
“Normally, a nice incentive is actually being on a contract year and needing to re-sign and being hungry. It almost could be a bit of a concern, like just getting complacent, because I don’t have to go after that next contract, but that’s the reason why I made this deal with Sylvan. That if I’m not hungry, I’m not going to keep on going. And I’m still hungry so, I want to take on this year.”
