Michael Woods thought Father Time had finally come calling. Instead, he's winning Grand Tour stages, and hungry for a big result at home.
The 37-year-old from Ottawa rides into this weekend's Montreal cycling Grand Prix as a recent Spanish Vuelta stage winner despite dealing with an early-season illness that had him struggling at the Giro d'Italia and considering calling it quits. "I thought I was just getting old, and that's why I wasn't going as well at the races," Woods said. "It really held me back and made me contemplate retiring, until I found out actually what was going on." Woods withdrew from the Giro in May after a crash left him with mild concussion symptoms.
Further testing revealed he had been battling Helicobacter pylori, a bacterial stomach infection his team believes he contracted during training camp in South Africa.
After months of re-finding his stamina, Woods, who became the third Canadian to win a Tour de France stage last year, triumphed on the mountainous 13th stage of La Vuelta on Aug.