Michael Woods says he’s decided to proper a number of wrongs on the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal after being left dissatisfied in his efficiency final trip.
Woods completed fifteenth behind final 12 months’s winner Adam Yates, however stated his current stage win on the Vuelta a España gave him an enormous quantity of confidence that he would make a big enchancment on final 12 months’s displaying on Sunday.
Sporting his Canadian nationwide champion’s package, Woods met with reporters in Montréal on Saturday afternoon forward of lining as much as face the likes of Tadej Pogačar on the Parc du Mont-Royal circuit.
Woods stated that he had given little thought to the Slovenian’s presence and defined that it could not imply that he would majorly modify his race technique.
“In some senses, he is an issue, however in different senses, he makes the race actually easy and straightforward,” Woods stated. “It isn’t a sophisticated race tomorrow. It is tremendous difficult within the sense that it is simply demanding from a bodily perspective.
“And with Pogačar being there, you’ll be able to virtually assure that UAE are simply going to make the race tremendous onerous, as a result of that is the easiest way for him to win. After which for me, it simply makes my life each very easy and actually onerous. Straightforward within the sense of ways, and really onerous within the sense of simply having to execute a plan.”
“Final 12 months I used to be a bit dissatisfied with my efficiency,” he added. “It was an ideal race for me within the sense that it was actually onerous, actually demanding, and it was such an attritional race, particularly with the additional lap. I simply keep in mind feeling very upset and dissatisfied with my efficiency, not with the ability to be up there with Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov.
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“I feel we made some errors that day, we rode an excessive amount of on the entrance, too early, and that value us a bit, and I simply wasn’t ok. I did not have any actual race days previous to Montréal final 12 months, whereas I’ve bought the Vuelta beneath my belt now. I feel that is actually going to assist me for this race.”
Montréal is already gearing up for the return of the World Championships in 2026. Woods might be 39-years-old by the point biking’s showpiece occasion returns to his homeland. Nonetheless, he didn’t rule out extending his profession with the intention to race for his nation on one in all biking’s most well-known circuits exterior of Europe.
“In the event you requested me three, 4 months in the past, I would say undoubtedly not,” he stated. “That’s simply with the sickness that I had in the beginning of the 12 months, I had this bacterial an infection that we could not determine till Might.
“Throughout that interval, I actually thought that I used to be simply getting outdated, and my efficiency was sliding. At that second, I used to be considering that I undoubtedly would not go until 2026. Now that I am doing nicely, and I am feeling good, I definitely wish to do subsequent 12 months, after which I will decide after that for 2026.”
Full particulars of the 2026 street race course usually are not but recognized, however the route is prone to be much like that of the GP Montréal. Aided by the 2 Canadian WorldTour races, Woods stated that biking is continuous to develop in reputation within the metropolis.
“Montréal basically is only a nice sporting metropolis,” Woods stated. “They’ve so many nice occasions. After which additionally the course itself might be actually, actually onerous I think about. I have not seen the precise particulars of the course, but when it is something like this circuit, a worthy champion might be made.”
