Michael Woods, 36, of Toronto had the perfect day of his biking profession Sunday, successful the ninth stage of the Tour de France. The sub-four-minute miler sat patiently behind chief Matteo Jorgenson of the Movistar group, who led the stage for 47 km, making the most of Jorgenson’s flagging power solely 400m from the highest of the legendary Puy de Dôme and surging forward for the stage win. Woods, a former 1,500m runner and Canadian file holder, rides for the Israel–Premier Tech group.
🏆🇨🇦 @rusty_woods wins on the prime of the Puy de Dôme!
🏆🇨🇦 @rusty_woods s’impose au Puy de Dôme !#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/X3LRwBC79s
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 9, 2023
Woods and Jorgenson had been a part of an early breakaway of 14 riders that additionally included stage 9 runner-up Pierre Latour of France and third-place finisher Matej Mohoric of Slovenia.
Initially from Ottawa, Woods has held the Canadian U20 mile file (3:57.48) and U20 3,000m file (7:58.04) since 2005. He was a multi-year nationwide champion in operating and received gold on the Pan American Junior Championships throughout his early years. Woods ran on the College of Michigan, however transitioned from operating to biking after repeated foot accidents introduced a halt to his operating profession; he went professional as a bicycle owner in 2013 and made the Canadian Olympic group for Rio in 2016. He additionally competed on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, ending fifth within the males’s particular person highway race.
In 2018, Woods received a stage within the Vuelta a España; like Sunday’s Tour stage win, it was on the fruits of a steep climb. He first competed within the Tour de France in 2019 (the primary Canadian to compete within the Tour since 2016), driving for the US-based EF Training First group and ending thirty second total. He didn’t end in 2021 or 2022, so Sunday’s stage victory represents an enormous success for Woods, who is barely the third Canadian to win a stage of the Tour, after Steve Bauer in 1988 and Hugo Houle simply final yr.
2022 winner Jonas Vingegaard of Crew Jumbo-Visma retains the yellow jersey however misplaced about eight seconds to the Slovenian celebrity Tadej Pogacar.