Michael Woods' 2025 season has suffered another setback after the Canadian champion was forced to abandon the Tour de Suisse with a lung infection on Wednesday.
The 38-year-old was racing his first race since coming back from a collarbone break in March this week, racing in 22nd overall after three days of racing, including a 12th place on Tuesday's stage 3.
He was a DNF on stage 4, a mountainous stage won by João Almeida, and revealed the reason for his withdrawal in a post to Instagram on Wednesday afternoon.
"Cycling is a cruel, cruel sport," the Israel-Premier Tech rider wrote. "For the second time this year, I came off a great altitude camp, in great form, only to abandon the first race post.
"This time it was due to a lung infection. It's tough to be ending my time in the Canadian national champ jersey this way, but I have some big races on the horizon. Hopefully, the bad luck stops here."
Woods started his season in Australia with the Villawood Men's Classic, Tour Down Under, Surf Coast Classic, and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, with a 10th at the Tour Down Under his best result from the trip.
He raced the Faun-Ardèche Classic and Faun Drome Classic in mid-March, but later in the month, he crashed at Milano-Torino, sustaining a fractured collarbone in the process.
Woods, who has four stage wins across the Tour de France and Vuelta a España on his palmarès, hasn't raced since then, with the Tour de Suisse being his comeback race after three months away.
He had been slated to line up at the Tour de France next month, though it remains to be seen if he'll fully recover in time to take the start in Lille on July 5.
