How Mike Woods Won a Stage of the Tour

THE STAGE

Stage 9 of the 2023 Tour de France finished atop the Puy de Dôme — a volcanic peak in the Auvergne region of France that the Tour hadn't climbed since 1986. Coincidentally, the same year Mike Woods was born.

The mountain sits on protected land, which meant something the Tour almost never sees: no fans on the upper slopes. Past the 4 km mark, the crowds were cut off entirely, leaving riders alone with nothing but the sound of their own breathing and the helicopter overhead.

It's also one of the most storied climbs in the sport's history, nicknamed the "Mountain of the Gods" for the riders who've conquered it dating back to the 1950s. Returning it to the route after nearly four decades made Mike Woods' win there feel more like stepping into cycling legend.

Here's Mike with an account of that magical day, his role in the Tour, and what he's learned since stepping away.

MY ROLE IN THE TOUR

My role at that race was to focus on stage wins. I wasn't targeting the general classification. I was focusing on just trying to win a stage.

The Tour has 21 stages, and obviously some riders target the general classification, but winning a stage in the Tour is an accomplishment in itself and can define a rider's career. Those that can't compete in the general classification due to time trial abilities, or they're more sprinter types, or they just don't have the minerals for 21 days, build their season around target stages. That's what I was doing.

THE TARGET

It was a huge target day for me. I knew that was the first opportunity for a breakaway to stay, but I knew it would be very challenging to get into the breakaway. So I was super nervous going into the stage. Extremely nervous, but very focused, and I knew exactly what I had to do.

As a stage hunter, you have an idea of a couple of stages that you think you can win on, but Stage 9 was tailor-made for me. I really knew that if I was in the breakaway and the breakaway survived, I had a really good shot at winning.

The last time the Tour had run this stage was 1986. That's the year I was born.

RACE MORNING

My morning routine was pretty typical of every stage of the Tour. You get into this real routine, and you kind of do the exact same thing almost every day.

Wake up, have a coffee, smash as many carbohydrates as you can put down, then get on the bus, drive to the stage, fool around on your iPad a bit, but then start looking over what's coming up on the stage.

Going through VeloViewer, which is an app a lot of riders use to see the course. Going through the race bible, which is a book that shows all the course details. Looking over Google Maps, weather apps, trying to find out where key features are going to play into the race. Looking at the results from the day before and seeing who's going to be good that day, who's probably going to want to try and get into the breakaway, and figure out where that breakaway could start. So you spend a lot of time just on research on the bus ride in.

Once you get to the actual stage, put on music, get pumped up with the boys, pinning your numbers on—which is absolutely ridiculous considering you have these $500 skinsuits. Put a bunch of sunscreen on and then nervously make your way to the start.

THE PLAYLIST

I make playlists for the team bus. Every rider each week submits ten songs.

The criteria are: a song from the year you were born, a song you've made love to, a song that gets the party started, a song from your country of origin, a club banger, a ballad...

Everyone submits them and then the playlist goes for the week. I don't want the pressure of being DJ. I made the criteria so no one can complain. I already have enough pressure in my day.

READING THE BREAKAWAY

I knew that the breakaway could start right from kilometer zero.

Often in the Tour de France you have a neutral zone where no one's actually racing, but there's jockeying for position. Once the flag drops at K0, the lead car drives away, and now riders will sprint toward the car as it's accelerating because they get a draft from it. Guys will attack into the car.

I knew this stage was going to be important to follow that car. I knew Victor Campenaerts, who's a breakaway specialist, would be on it. I thought Wout van Aert might try doing that. I knew Matteo Jorgenson would probably be a guy to watch, and Nielsen Powless was another guy to watch. Even Matej Mohorič—I figured he'd be crafty enough to get into the break.

That's exactly what happened. Victor Campenaerts got right on the back of it along with several other riders, and I was one of the last guys to manage to get onto that line of riders on the wheel of the car. We looked back and we had a gap.

MAKING THE BREAK

Me getting into that breakaway was certainly years of missing breakaways just like that one and knowing that could be a possibility. It shows [if you have] the right positioning and are following the right wheels.

The breakaway wasn't fully established once we got away because Trek missed it. They had some climbers they wanted in there, so Trek chased the breakaway. For an hour we rode full gas, super hard, just trying to break Trek. Finally they broke, and then we got a huge, huge gap.

RACING WITHOUT FANS

It was so weird.

There were massive crowds until the 4 km to go mark, when it was shut down. You had this crazy contrast of Tour de France fans screaming, yelling, running beside you, cheering, doing all the antics of drunk, wild Tour de France fans. Then crossing the 4K mark to go and then silence. You just hear your breath, the odd vehicle up ahead, the helicopter above, and that's it.

It was very easy to get into your own head. I certainly had some moments where I thought, "What the f**k am I doing? What am I doing with my life? How did I mess this one up so bad?" Then all of a sudden thinking, "Oh no, you're going to win. You've got this shot."

THE FINAL CLIMB

I really didn't think I was going to win.

Once the climb started, I resigned myself to thinking, I'm probably not going to win today. I'm just going to give it everything I have. I'm not going to play tactics. I'm just going to go as hard as I possibly can go up this climb. If that means I end up finishing tenth or first, I'll be proud of myself for going as hard as I did.

I really didn't think I would catch Matteo until about 800 meters to go. I saw his head drop. I saw he was really fatigued. I thought, "Okay, I'll close this gap, and I'll be able to have a shot with him."

THE FINISH

One thing that was very special was my soigneur, John Adams. He's Canadian.

He'd been my soigneur for four or five years at that point and had done every single race day with me. He knew how much this stage meant to me. Before the stage, he was chirping me, telling me I had to put the hero pants on.

Finishing, he was there. He's been there for most of my big wins, but that was a big one. Just to hug him and celebrate with him was nice.

NUTRITION

BREAKFAST

Definitely crepes, rice, eggs, probably a lot of maple syrup, too. Trying to hit at least 150 grams of carbohydrate for breakfast because we knew this could be a big stage.

DURING THE RACE

It was definitely a gel day. Normally I like to eat solid foods on the bike, but when you're going as hard as we were going, it was mainly a gel day. About 100 to 110 grams of carbohydrate per hour.

I was trying to get water in too. That's one of the advantages of being on a WorldTour team—you have the car following you. I was going back to the car getting ice water to spray my head and drink. I believe we were on Santa Madre bottles and 60-gram gels.

RECOVERY

Definitely have some cherry juice right afterwards. Rice and eggs.

One thing that's amazing about not winning a stage is you go on the bus and get back into the routine right away. If you win a stage, you have doping control, interviews, podium presentation, etc. It's not the worst thing that's happened to you, but it does break up the routine.

ON MOVING TO GRAVEL

I both miss and don't miss how much I was pampered in the WorldTour. I probably had 100 massages last year. This year I'm on zero. I miss having the support around me.

At the same time, I love privateering and gravel racing because of that. It feels more like an adventure. All in all, I'm enjoying gravel more than I ever thought. It's really made me refine my love for cycling.

WHAT THE TOUR TAUGHT ME

Nothing phases me as much now because of racing the Tour. The stakes are so high. I put so much pressure on myself at the Tour because I realized so many people were watching.

This season is a lot more digestible because I'm not putting the same level of pressure on myself. It suddenly made me realize what I'm capable of handling.

LOOKING BACK

I've been told by a lot of people it's a great one to have won. I would take any stage of the Tour. It was a special place to win. It was good timing. A lot of people were watching. It was an exciting stage race in general. I'm really fortunate to have won on that stage.