By Josh Bell
The roads traveled have been very different for two Ottawa cyclists, but their paths have now met on the Garneau-Quebecor Cycling Team. Alex Cataford and Mike Woods are two of 13 members on the prominent Canadian cycling team that races across North America and further, including the May 17-20 Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau.
Cataford got into cycling because of his mom and uncle, who both rode. They bought him his first bike when he was 12 and he would ride around the streets in Kanata. From there he joined the Almonte Bicycle Club, and then the Ottawa Bicycle Club.
“From there I started racing,” the 19-year-old explains. “One thing led to another.”
Woods, on the other hand, started out as a high-performance runner – a national champ numerous times. But due to overtraining, he broke his foot several times, ending his competitive running career. Woods doesn’t hold on to the past though.
“In retrospect now I don’t regret it, it was a great learning experience for me,” indicates the 26-year-old former University of Michigan Wolverine. “It’s made me a much better running coach and it’s brought me to cycling, which I really enjoy.”
His cycling approach is different.
“I’ve limited my training almost too much in fear of injury,” highlights Woods, whose running times as a junior still hold up in several record books. “With running, I just overdid it and that cost me physically as well as emotionally. I felt drained all the time; I wasn’t maximizing my potential because I was overtraining. This year I’m training much harder, but the difference now is that I know where that line is to overtraining and I know not to cross it.”
Harrowing Dominican ride
The pair have been quite successful in their cycling careers so far. Cataford is a six-time junior national champion, and he won the junior Pan American title in 2011. Woods’ career has been short so far, but a big highlight was winning the General Classification and King of the Mountain categories at the Tour of the Catskills near Albany, NY.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though. At the end of February, the two participated in the Vuelta Independencia Nacional, a race in the Dominican Republic. Both riders were seriously injured during the eight-stage tour. Cataford hit his head during a crash and doesn’t recall much of what happened.
“I had to be taken away in an ambulance,” he describes. “I couldn’t finish the race unfortunately, and I had to get stitches and x-rays, so I was flown home. It might have been my worst crash to date. My bike was just garbage after.”
Woods needed help from his teammates to get his racing shirt on after a crash of his own.
“Relative to him I was pretty unscathed and I still broke my elbow,” recounts Woods, who does a masterful job of relaying his experiences on his rustywoods.wordpress.com blog.
The two are now fully healed and with the cycling season underway, they will be very busy. On top of training around 20 hours a week, Cataford is currently at Queen’s University studying engineering physics, while Woods coaches runners and works at The Cyclery on Bank St., down the street from Cataford’s home.
The pair are unsure whether Garneau will assign them to race in Gatineau, but would certainly love the opportunity to compete in a major international event at home.
“My main focus right now is to be a full-on professional and race over in Europe,” Cataford signals.
Woods also wants to ride in Europe, and Garneau may be the perfect place for them to achieve their goal, he notes.
“Riding for Garneau is certainly a part of the natural progression,” he adds. “Being a part of a professional team that has connections to bigger professional teams in Europe, it’s a good stepping stone.”