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After winning a Tirreno-Adriatico stage and leading for two days, Woods finishes eighth

A showcase for Giro contenders at the Race of the Two Seas

Photo by: Sirotti
September 14, 2020
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Michael Woods, who won a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and led the WorldTour stage race for two days, finished in eighth place overall after Monday’s concluding time trial. The result is his best one-week, WorldTour stage race since sixth place in last year’s Volta a Catalunya. Simon Yates successfully defended his blue leader’s jersey in Monday’s chrono, and he lifted the famous trident trophy in San Benedetto del Tronto. Yates avenged his twin Adam, currently fifth in the Tour de France, who lost last season’s Tirreno-Adriatico by a single second to Primoz Roglič after the same course.

Yates came into the day with a 16-second lead over Rafal Majka and 39-seconds over Geraint Thomas. Woods was in seventh place, with James Knox 4-seconds off his spot.

The Course

The profile was dead flat in the there-and-back, 10.3 km route in San Benedetto del Tronto, Marche on the Adriatic Sea. Wind was an issue for the athletes in the return leg.

Thirty-ninth to start, Italian chrono champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos) posted the best time of 10:42. This was the measure for the rest of the day.

Woods in the start house.

Woods’ 12:22 was not enough to hold off Knox, and the Canadian finished ahead of Gianluca Brambilla (Italy/Trek-Segafredo) by 50-seconds on the GC. Woods also came fifth in the points competition and third in the mountains classification.

Thomas posted the fourth fastest time of the day, giving Ineos three of the top four spots and resulting in the Brit jumping over Rafal Majka on the podium.

Giro Contender Preview

The start of the Giro d’Italia in Sicily is 19 days away. For pink jersey contenders it’s hard to see beyond the top-10 of Tirreno Adriatico (in order): Yates, Thomas, Majka, Wilco Kelderman, Alexandr Vlasov, Deceuninck-Quick Step’s duo of Fausto Masnada and James Knox, and Mike Woods. Add Steven Kruijswijk to that list. Fifteenth-place Jakob Fuglsang was unexpectedly weak and Vincenzo Nibali was unimpressive, the former outshone by teammate Vlasov and the latter eclipsed by teammate Brambilla. At the Giro fourth place Kelderman will have the assistance of 11th place Sam Oomen and 13th place Jai Hindley. The Giro’s three time trials favour Thomas.

2020 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 8
1) Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos) 10:42
2) Victor Campenaerts (Belgium/NTT) +0:18
3) Dennis Rohan (Australia/Ineos) +0:26
95) Michael Woods (Canada/EF Pro Cycling) +1:40

2020 Tirreno-Adriatico Final GC
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 32:07:34
2) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) +0:17
3) Rafal Majka (Poland/Bora-Hansgrohe +0:29
8) Michael Woods (Canada/EF Pro Cycling) +2:12