From late bloomer to legend: how Michael Woods conquered the steepest climbs and life’s hardest loss

In an era of do-it-all stars like Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock, pure specialists can fade from view. Among the climbers especially, more and more riders can time trial or pack a punch in a sprint. That’s exactly why it’s worth pausing to appreciate Michael Woods, a rider who turned savage gradients into his personal stage.

You have late bloomers… and then you have late bloomers. Turning pro at 29 seems impossible to many, but Woods did it. His path to cycling twisted and turned: after ice hockey he moved into running, where he set Canadian junior records on 1500m and 3000m. Injuries, though, ended the dream of reaching the very top in athletics and pushed him toward the bike.

The Canadian had already had a taste of cycling and turned out to be very good at it, but it took time before a real career felt realistic. He started in 2013 on the continental scene and hovered there for four years, impressing across North America, until Cannondale–Drapac took a chance on the “old fox” and handed the 29-year-old his first WorldTour deal.

Thrown straight into the WorldTour, Woods quickly showed what he was made of: a real, pure climber. In his first race at the top level, the Tour Down Under, he finished fifth overall. His second Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España in 2017, brought a seventh place. Above all, Woods could always hold his own when the road pitched to its nastiest ramps; the domain that would define him.

That became a pattern in his career. When the road tilted up like a ski jump, you’d always see the Canadian near the front. He won Milano–Torino, on the steep Superga climb. His first, and only, Tour de France stage win came in 2023, at the age of 36. A stage finish returned, after a long absence, to the Puy de Dôme, and once again it was on the nastiest sections where he made the difference.

He could do one-day races as well: Liège–Bastogne–Liège particularly suited him. Of his eight participations he finished seven, and in six of those he came home inside the top ten. In 2018 he was even second, behind Bob Jungels. He also came close to becoming world champion that same year: in Innsbruck he may have been the best uphill, but in the sprint he lost out to Alejandro Valverde and Romain Bardet. It was a bronze medal for the Canadian.

Fine results, all of them. A Tour de France stage win would be the pinnacle for many careers, but for Woods the true high point came at the Vuelta. After a solid Giro d’Italia he had taken a rest, and there was good news at home: his wife was pregnant, with the baby due sometime in the summer. 

But the dream turned into a nightmare. In the final month of the pregnancy, things went wrong: Hunter, as they had named the baby boy, passed away. A horror for the Woods family, made even heavier by the death of the rider’s father-in-law just a month earlier. How do you go on after a period like that? 

It’s a question that’s hard to answer. Woods did what many people would do: he just kept going. Via the Tour of Utah he made it to the start of the Vuelta a España, where he didn’t really convince. The first two weeks were difficult, but on stage 17 he joined the break. The stage finished atop Balcón de Bizkaia, a Basque leg-breaker: perfect for the Canadian.

With top climbers like Rafał Majka, David de la Cruz and Dylan Teuns in the group, competition for the day’s win was fierce. The favourites let the escapees have their day, and it was that trio, together with Woods, who hit the final kilometre. It was brutally, brutally steep: in the Basque mist, Woods launched his move.

He opened a gap, but Teuns gave him little room. It became man against man. The landscape disappeared into the clouds, and the riders seemed to be riding up into the sky. Woods must have felt it, because he was riding with an angel on his shoulder. In that savage final kilometre, Hunter was constantly on his mind, and it gave him just that little bit extra.

By only a few metres, the Canadian took his first win in a Grand Tour. The emotions at the line were easy to explain. "I was only thinking about how hard this year had been, and I used my little Hunter as inspiration,” he sobbed about the baby who had died less than two months earlier. "I wanted to win for him, for my father-in-law and for my wife."

It shows how much strength you can draw from something so terrible. A month later Woods took Worlds bronze in Austria, and six years later, at almost 38, he seized his third Vuelta stage in the colours of the Canadian champions' jersey. This year he said goodbye to professional cycling at the Tour de France, after ten pro seasons.

Woods’ career was the story of resilience, of falling and getting back up again. All the setbacks that come with sport faded by comparison: if you can come back from the very worst, then an injury is just a small thing. So, dear cycling fan: when you watch a savage 20-percent finishing slope, think of Michael Woods. Think of his wife, his son and his father-in-law.