Woods joins Garneau-Quebecor in 2013

In just one year, Canada’s Michael Woods transformed himself from a former national team middle-distance runner to a promising road cyclist. Joining the International Cycling Union (UCI) continental team Garneau-Quebecor, he is scheduled to compete in some of the top bike races around the world.

Woods will begin his season with Garneau-Quebecor at the Vuelta Independencia Nacional in the Dominican Republic this month. He will also compete in USA Cycling National Criterium Calendar races in Florida this spring. But he’s placing a priority on the UCI-sanctioned events in Canada during the summer.

“I really enjoyed Tour de Beauce last year, so this will definitely be a big priority,” Woods told Canadian Cycling Magazine. “However, I hope to ride in the Tour of Alberta as well as the two WorldTour races in Quebec and Montreal. My participation in those races will certainly be conditional on my fitness and my performance over the course of the year, but they are the highest on my list.”

Woods grew up in Ottawa where he competed for the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club. He had a successful career with Michigan State University racing on the NCAA circuit as a runner. Stress fractures forced him to stop running and he turned to competitive cycling instead.

“When I was home from Michigan, in the summer of 2007, I stole my Dad’s bike in order to do some cross training and I really enjoyed it,” Woods said. “From 2007 until 2010, I really slammed my head against a wall trying to come back from that navicular stress fracture, and as my running began to fall apart, I began to bike with more regularity.”

Woods began to take competitive cycling seriously in 2012 and spent most of the season racing for Stevens Canada and The Cyclery. He also got a start with the Canadian road cycling team at the Tour de Beauce in Quebec.

“I got some excellent opportunities to ride in pro-level races and those moments were great,” Woods said. “Competing for Team Canada at Tour de Beauce was definitely the highlight. Really though, the best moment was feeling like I had a purpose again. When I was running well, everything I did was focused around my goals as a runner, having that taken away due to my injuries sucked. Now that I’m back in a sport looking to move up in its ranks, I feel like I have goals again.”