An untimely encounter with bronchitis this spring may have forced Michael Woods (Israel-Start Up Nation) to rethink his early-season race programme, but the Canadian says he is bouncing back way faster than he had hoped, and to unprecedentedly good levels in terms of his climbing, too.
Woods was forced to cancel his participation in Tirreno-Adriatico and switch to the Volta a Catalunya because of the illness, which, he told Cyclingnews, "knocked me and my whole family out for over a week."
"Coming into here I wasn't sure how my shape would be, but I'm quite pleased with how I'm regaining shape."
Currently lying 13th overall at 1:48, Woods took eighth on the first big Pyrenean summit finish at Vallter 2000, and then led the group of favourites over the line at Port Ainé for second on Thursday.
"I was gambling on [stage winner Esteban] Chaves (Team BikeExchange) being brought back on Thursday, but I haven't felt that good on a long climb in my career, really, so I was very pleased," Woods said.
Woods' switch in race program from Tirreno to Catalunya has also given him an opportunity to witness Ineos Grenadiers' crushing domination on both major Pyrenean stages.
"They were certainly making a statement," he observed. "I'm sure they want to stamp their authority on the peloton. This is a battle at every race, and you want to show you have the strongest team."
Meanwhile, Woods is continuing his solo campaign of a carbon-neutral season, an initiative which he says is sparking widespread interest.
"All the positive comments and feedback have been amazing, I've had a lot of great suggestions. Obviously, it's going to be hard and I've spent a lot of time researching it, and even this week I've been disappointed with how much littering and going through bottles we get through.
"There have been things I know we can adjust. I've been using permanent utensils on the race and paid the carbon offsets for this as well. So far it's been a good start, but there's a lot of room to improve."
Woods will have plenty of opportunities to do that as he reverts to his scheduled 2021 campaign after Catalonia, starting with the Itzulia Basque Country the week after next and then going onto the Ardennes.
