Michael Woods in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 2016-2019
A crash, a podium and a single leg warmer
Michael Woods, still on the mend from a broken femur suffered in Paris-Nice, would not have lined up for Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege or any of the other cancelled Ardennes Classics. La Doyenne, for good or ill, has become the linchpin of his spring campaign at EF Pro Cycling in the four years he has been with the team. In the three seasons he has completed Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the race has been his most successful of the Ardennes Week.
2016
Woods hit the ground running in the WorldTour, placing fifth in the Tour Down Under in his first race for Cannondale. After 12th in La Fleche Wallonne, Woods crashed in La Doyenne, breaking his hand in three places and injuring his back. This brought his spring in competition to a close–he was slated to start the Giro d’Italia–and he wouldn’t race again until nationals, where he was 14th in the time trial. Runner-up in Milan-Torino was the high mark of his debut season with Cannondale.
2017
By the time Woods arrived at the 2017 Ardennes Week, he already had four WorldTour stage races under his belt. Runner-up to Simon Yates in one-day race Gran Premio Miguel Indurain was his best result. Once again skipping Amstel Gold, Woods took 11th in Fleche Wallonne before ninth in La Doyenne, his first Monument top-10. Rusty’s 2017 culminated with 7th in his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España.
2018
After satisfactory results in Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne, Woods had a huge result in the 2018 La Doyenne. Having bolted from the front group on the penultimate climb, La Roche-aux-Faucons, Bob Jungels was soloing to the greatest victory of his career. Behind, Jelle Vanendert had tried to bridge over to the Luxembourger. With 2.3-km to go, Woods and Romain Bardet skipped away from the chase group, passed Vanendert inside the final kilometre and sprinted it out for the podium spots, with Woods taking the runner-up spot.
Woods became the first Canadian to podium in La Doyenne and only the second to podium in a Monument, 28-years after Steve Bauer missed out on a Paris-Roubaix win by millimeters.
That season Woods went on to win a stage of the Vuelta and earn bronze at the Worlds; 2018 stands as his best pro season so far.
2019
Woods was rolling before Ardennes Week with top-7 places in the Tour Down Under, Herald Sun Tour and Volta a Catalunya. Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne weren’t anything to holler about–he came 68th and 55th respectively.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege would be Jakob Fuglsang’s 2018 masterpiece. On the final climb Cote de la Roche-aux-Faucons Tim Wellens immediately attacked. Fuglsang, Michael Woods and Davide Formolo responded. Fuglsang rode clear of Woods and Formolo with 13-km to go. Formolo would come closest to stopping the Dane, while Woods fought it out with Adam Yates, Vincenzo Nibali, Mikel Landa, David Gaudu and Max Schachmann for the final podium spot. Fifth would be Woods’ accomplishment, his second best result in La Doyenne.
Woods rode the end of the race wearing a single leg warmer on his left leg.
Woods’ Tour de France debut that summer saw him come 32nd, nothing to sneeze at considering it’s his third best Grand Tour result out of five races. He caught fire in the autumn with a runner-up result to Primoz Roglic in the Giro dell’Emilia, a huge win over Alejandro Valverde four days later in the 100th Milano-Torino, fifth in Il Lombardia and second in the Japan Cup to Bauke Mollema.
