Michael Woods has not started a race since the last Tour de France, when he won a first career stage. Now his legs are ready for the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et Montréal (GPCQM) on September 8 and 10, where he hopes to get his hands on the metropolitan stage.
“The goal for me is really Montreal,” he said from his residence in Andorra by videoconference on Thursday. Quebec too, but Montreal is a circuit made more for my style, with a steep drop. But it is certain that I want to run (in Quebec) too.
” I’m ready. I have done good training in recent weeks and recovered well after the Tour (de France), during which I fell ill. But after a good week of recovery, I was able to resume training. Now my legs are ready. »
Woods, who has won the Vuelta and the Tour de France, has not participated in the Quebec stages of the UCI World Tour since 2019, when he took eighth place in Montreal and finished 17th in Quebec.
“These two steps are really important for my team, but also for me. This is where it all started. It was through those races that I was able to reach where I am today,” Woods recalled.
If he wants to obtain good results in the two stages, however, he will not be the leader of Israel-Premier Tech for the stage of the Old Capital.
“We have a young runner, Corbin Strong. He is really a runner in the style of Michael Matthews, he is really made for a race like Quebec, so for sure I will not be the leader for this race. But in Montreal, I hope I can be a protected rider. We saw it last year: even a climber like Simon Yates can win.
“It’s going to be tough, it’s always complicated Montreal,” added Woods. “I finished eighth in 2019. I was very strong on the climbs in my opinion, but the sprints were very hard. But even if I don’t have the best sprint after 220 km in my legs and almost 5000 m of elevation gain, I can win. »
This 12th edition of the GPCQM will be contested by 23 cycling teams, a record. Of these, 18 are registered for the World Tour and five have been invited by the organizers, including the Canadian national team and Israel-Premier Tech.
The success of the GPCQM is not unrelated to the fact that athletes like Woods and Quebecers Hugo Houle, Guillaume Boivin and Antoine Duchesne, now retired, have enjoyed great success on the international scene in recent years.
“They are first-rate ambassadors,” said Sébastien Arsenault, the event’s President and CEO. You see it with the crowds: we had over 220,000 spectators for two races last year. We also feel the enthusiasm at the corporate level. We have more requests for boxes. But we are on the edge of the streets: we do not have the space we would like to put more. »
Is the huge success that both races have enjoyed since their inception making small? Does the UCI plan to add stages in America?
“It’s a predominantly European sport,” Arsenault said. Do we have a monopoly? No. Can some people believe it? Maybe. I say it without pretension: when you organize events of this quality – the crowds are there, the riders want to come, the sports directors send the best cyclists at this stage of the season to seek points of the World UCI Tower – (it creates a craze).
“But you have to be careful: in the desire to develop the circuit in the past, the UCI gave birth to mice. Races that make potato two or three years later, it does not serve anyone. These are also races that are very expensive. In some countries, it is less complex, because the national television takes care of the television broadcasting 100%. Here, it is our financial responsibility. It costs almost a million dollars to broadcast these two races all over the world. An organization that would therefore like to obtain a World Tour race should have all of these elements, because more and more these races offer this quality. »
The organization holds a third UCI World Tour license, but adding a third stage is not easy.
“About 50 races have wanted to have this license for several years and will not have it. To organize a third race of this caliber – in the Eastern Townships for example, we have been talking about it for a few years – we must ensure that the financial package makes sense. It’s a sport that’s free: I don’t have box office receipts like in tennis or Formula 1, for example. […] There are still a lot of things to attach. However, the interest is there.
“Same for (female steps). International cycling is investing a lot to elevate women’s cycling. If tomorrow morning we had a women’s event of this level, I should be able to offer the same standards to the women that I offer to the men: the planes, the accommodation, the food, the television broadcast. On the other hand, there is a reality that is often disappointing. The show is often equal, but the television audience is not always there. »