Michael Woods adds Canadian road race championship to his résumé

Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) won his first road race title at the Canadian Road Championships, surging ahead of newly-crowned Canadian time trial titlist Pier-André Coté (Israel-Premier Tech Academy) in a two-up sprint.

Carson Miles (Team N’side) came away with the bronze medal, finishing just over 10 minutes behind.

“I’m super proud to have won today and claim the national champion’s jersey,” he says. “To be wearing the maple leaf jersey for the next year is something that I’m really excited about.”

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Only 25 riders in the 55-rider field finished the challenging 199.2km road course around Saint-Georges, which included five loops of a 17km climbing section between Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne to Lac-Etchemin. Before the first hour had ticked away, the podium trio had split away from the main field, which fell apart over the remaining circuits.

With 75km to go, Coté took a solo flyer but Woods was able to work his way back and the two worked in tandem to distance Miles.

“I couldn’t have done it without the help of Pier-André, it was awesome to have him in the race. He was a star, he was super strong,” Woods added. “To win side by side with him was special.”

Coté won the road race at nationals in 2022. Woods, now in his 13th season as a professional cyclist, had his previous best finish in the road race in 2014 when he finished fourth.

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