“Dream come true”: Canadian Michael Woods captures first Tour de France victory
36-year-old Michael Woods conquered the ninth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday earning his first career victory at the Grand Tour in an intense race.
The Canadian cyclist caught up to American, Matteo Jorgenson, to claim the victory at an altitude of over 1400 meters atop the famous Puy de Dôme volcano. The volcano was last climbed 35 years ago in the Grande Boucle. Woods shared the podium with France’s Piere Latour and Slovenia’s Matej Mohoric who finished second and third respectively.
As he began the final climb to the top of the volcano, 24-year-old Jorgensen seemed to be ahead of the pack accompanied by Matej Mohoric close behind. Woods was a part of the leading pack following the pair.
However, with less than three kilometres to go the Canadian put the pedal to the metal and made up for a deficit of almost two minutes. Woods came back conquering Jorgenson less than 500 meters from the finish line.
Woods completed the 182.4 kilometre race in four hours 19 minutes and 41 seconds.
With this victory, Woods becomes the third Canadian to win a stage of the world’s most prestigious cycling tour. The last Canadian to win was Hugo Houle, who took the sixteenth stage of the Tour de France in 2022.
The first Canadian to win this honour is Steve Bauer who was the historic winner of the 1988 edition. Bauer is currently the director of the Israel-Premier Tech Team of which Woods and Houle are a part of.
READ: Houle becomes the second Canadian in history to win a Tour de France stage.