Olympic dreams squarely in focus for runner-turned-cyclist

By Brian Trota

Most might care to exclude details about diarrhea dumps in the hotel lobby and road rash to his penis, but Mike Woods is as colourful a blogger as they come, and his 2015 cycling chronicles had him wearing a rainbow of colours too.

The 28-year-old became well known while wearing orange for his Optum Pro Cycling team during a breakout season, he managed to dress in the prestigious yellow leader’s jersey on occasion, and he recently finished the year in Cycling Canada’s odd light blue garb at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships.

Next year, Woods will don green with his new Cannondale-Garmin group – a World Tour-level team that competes in the planet’s biggest events such as Tour de France – but even so, there is no colour he wants to wear more than red as a member of the Canadian 2016 Olympic team.

“The Olympics have always been a childhood dream of mine,” highlights the Hillcrest High School grad. “My classmates even voted me most likely to go to the Olympics.”

At the time, they never would have predicted he’d be doing it as a cyclist. Woods still has several junior track-and-field records standing, but his running career was derailed by recurring foot injuries.

“Running has helped me to compartmentalize pain,” notes the 2005 Pan American junior men’s 1,500-metre champion. “I’m able to endure a lot of pain because of that. Running is a really mentally draining sport. That skill has been the most transferable.”

Woods always had solid fitness and aerobic capacity for cycling, but 2015 showed that he’s figured out how to ride a bike with the best as well. He started off the season with a bang, earning his first pro victory in Portugal just days after a big top-5 result at the Volta ao Algarve.

“That confirmed my abilities and gave me the confidence that I could make the jump to the top level of the sport,” Woods recounts.

The accolades continued to come as Woods claimed a victory in the final stage of the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico, a stage win at Tour of Utah en route to 2nd-place finish in the multi-race event’s overall general classification, a top-10 at the Tour of Alberta where he was the top Canadian, ahead of Ryder Hesjedal.

There were some down moments too – like the food illness and crashes, which are captured ingeniously on the University of Michigan English grad’s rustywoods.wordpress.com blog – but the climbing specialist most definitely made his mark and was rewarded with a contract to ride for U.S. team Cannondale-Garmin next season.

Woods concluded his 2015 campaign with the Sept. 20-27 World Championships in Virginia – an event that drew a jaw-dropping 645,000 spectators and 127 million TV viewers worldwide.

It wasn’t the stage for Woods to excel though, with a course that suited sprinters more than climbers.

“My job was to keep our two sprinters near the front of the race,” explains the 94th-place finisher in the men’s elite road race.

On relatively flat courses, Woods is unlikely to challenge for the front against faster riders, so he’ll be asked to support his teammates on those occasions. But when there are tough mountainous climbs – particularly near the finish – it’s his time to shine (and hurt).

To Woods’ delight, that’s the profile of the 2016 Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro, and he’s set that as the principle objective he wants to prepare for next year.

“There aren’t too many climbs in Ottawa, so that means I need to go to Colorado, California or Italy where there are some bigger climbs,” underlines Woods, who has committed to living in Europe next year along with his wife, Elly.

Before Woods’ sweet season began, he wore black-and-white – his favourite colours of all since it was for his wedding in Hawaii. Woods calls that day his biggest accomplishment yet, and highlights his bride’s instrumental role in supporting and encouraging his athletic career.

“When I realized my running career was over it was a pretty tough time in my life,” recalls the Olympic hopeful. “I tried to find purpose in my life. I did odd jobs and I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing.

“But the person that kept a lot of faith in me was my wife Elly. She really believed in me more than I did. Whether it was triathlon or cycling she always encouraged me to keep on going, and I did.”

2 more Ottawa riders at worlds

Ottawa Bicycle Club products Katherine Maine and Alex Cataford also competed in age group divisions at the UCI World Championships.

Maine placed an impressive 13th out of 74 as the top Canadian in the junior women’s time trial event, and finished in the middle of a pack of 18 riders who missed the podium by 13 seconds in the junior women’s road race.

Cataford was 33rd in the under-23 men’s individual time trial and did not finish the road race.