When a tenacious person sets their mind to a task, they usually achieve it in spades. It's a quality that stands out in former-runner-turned-pro-cyclist Michael Woods. After all, anything really worth doing takes persistence, perseverance and stubborn determination, and it's these character traits, along with a natural athletic gift, that have landed this relatively unknown rider a one-year contract with the WorldTour team Cannondale-Garmin in 2016.
Woods picked up cycling four years ago, after a once-flourishing career in athletics came to an abrupt end. As a runner, he set the Canadian junior record in the mile and the 3,000m, and won the gold medal in the 1,500m at the Pan Am junior championships (2005). He took a full scholarship and raced the NCAA at the University of Michigan and was on track for a long-term career in middle-distance running as an Olympic hopeful until several stress fractures in his foot eventually forced him to quit.
In 2011 and 2012, he started out cycling with a club-level team in Ottawa, and then moved up the ranks to Continental-level teams Garneau-Quebecor, Amore & Vita and 5-hour Energy, and had several invitations to join the Canadian national team before finding a comfortable place with the US-based outfit Optum Pro Cycling for the 2015 season.
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As a cyclist, he has had some respectable results but it was his record-breaking ride up the Haleakala Climb on the island of Maui in 2013 that first caught Cannondale-Garmin CEO Jonathan Vaughters' attention. Woods beat Ryder Hesjedal's 2009 record, setting the new mark at 2:32:24 along the 56km volcanic ascent, a record that Vaughters once owned in 1993.
"Someone tweeted at him [about breaking the Haleakala Climb record] and ever since, on and off, he has messaged me," Woods said.
His future position on Vaughters' WorldTour team really started to take shape this February at the Volta ao Algarve, where he placed fifth on the stage 4 summit finish to Alto do Malhão, surrounded by WorldTour riders. He had gone on to pick up other good results, too, with a second place atop Manayunk Wall at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and he won the queen stage 5 at the Tour of the Gila.
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