Woods confident issues are in past

Canadian rider back at full health heading into unique Giro d’Italia race

Canadian rider Michael Woods, felled by illness at the start of the season, says he is healthy and looking forward to testing himself at the Giro d’Italia.

“I’m feel really good, I’m feeling confident. Excited,” he said. “I love doing Grand Tours.

“The way my season started, I was having some anxiety towards this race,” he added. “Just because I wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped to. I fell ill and just didn’t have the legs I wanted to earlier in the season. When I was at the Ardenne Classics (in April), everything just started to click … Now I’m here and feeling great.”

The 31-year-old from Ottawa, riding for the EF Education First-Drapac team, became the first Canadian to finish on the podium at Liege-BastogneLiege when he sprinted to second place last month in the 258.5-kilometre race.

The race has not always been so kind to Woods. He crashed there in 2016, breaking his hand in three places and injuring his back.

“After that I wasn’t confident on the bike and had a lot of crashes afterwards and I ended up breaking my femur right before the Olympic Games,” he said. “It started off a real bad chain of events for me.”

Amazingly, Woods competed in the Rio road race, finishing 55th despite throwing up in mid-competition.

The 3,563 km Giro starts Friday with a 9.7 km individual time trial in Jerusalem.

The first three stages of the race are in Israel, marking the first time a Grand Tour race will kick off outside of Europe.

“Definitely a really interesting experience for me,” Woods said from Jerusalem.

“This is a job for sure for me. I do this professionally. But one thing I try not to lose sight of is the fact that I get to go to really interesting places in the world and do, effectively, adventures. A Grand Tour is an adventure. It’s like going to camp with your buddies for three weeks and just having this crazy adventure.”

After Israel, the riders travel to Sicily for three stages before reaching mainland Italy for Stage 7 on the second weekend of racing. The Giro wraps up May 27, in Rome.

Woods likes the course, having checked out several of the stages in person immediately after Liege-Bastogne-Liege. That included Stage 14 which finishes at Monte Zoncolan — 10 gutbusting kilometres with an average 12 per cent gradient, with peaks topping out at 22 per cent. It’s widely considered the hardest climb in Europe.

“I can attest to that. It’s ridiculously challenging. Supersteep,” said Woods, a gritty climber in his own right.

The other Canadians competing are 28-year-old Guillaume Boivin, of Montreal, riding for the Israel Cycling Academy team, and 40-year-old Svein Tuft, of Langley, B.C., riding for Mitchelton-Scott.

It’s the first Giro for Boivin, whose Israel Cycling Academy team is co-owned by Canadian Sylvan Adams, and the seventh and possibly last for Tuft.

A support rider, Tuft’s best overall result was 125th in 2010.

Woods was 38th in last year’s Giro and seventh in the Spanish Vuelta.