As a top-tier professional hanging up your racing wheels, there have been a few traditional routes down which retirement might be expected to take you. Team management is an obvious and well-trodden option, while opening a bike shop or becoming a winemaker seems to have been a popular one over the years too.
But in the past 10 years a new vocation has emerged that has proven increasingly popular with anyone left with a hankering to race on their own terms: gravel. This vibrant branch of bike racing has attracted former professionals in their droves, from Lachlan Morton, to Greg van Avermaet and Geerike Schreurs.
How did the idea for all this come about?
“After the Tour de France I was flying, in really good shape. I knew I was going to retire, and that I’d only be able to be in this type of form for another year or two, maybe three, max. I’m already noticing subtle declines in my performance. It’s not going to last forever, and so I want to capitalise on that.
“Also as an avid exerciser, there are events that I’ve always wanted to do. And so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try and create this bucket list of big items, and try and knock them off and see how they go.”
So it’s the perfect excuse to use that current fitness?
“Exactly. And the other piece with that is when I first started cycling, I had this imposter’s perspective, because I started so late. So when I did bike races, nothing was innate to me, but I was at the front of these races, and I could see all these things these guys were doing that were just crazy, that I thought were absolutely nuts – like peeing out of off a bike, or banging bars. These things that to them were completely normal, but to me were wild.
“I had a blog when I first started, and I really liked telling stories that were just wild to me. And I think that’s the other goal for this next year is to bring that imposter’s perspective again, to different disciplines and try to give other people insight into that.
You mentioned Leadville and Unbound in your blog announcement, and you’ve talked about Traka too. Are there any other big gravel events you’re hoping to get involved in?
“Yeah, I’m starting with Santa Vall [in Spain] in a week and a half. I’m also going to do some Life Time stuff with Sea Otter and, like I mentioned, Unbound. I’ll also do some UCI World Series gravel racing, but I don’t think I’ll do the Worlds, just because it’s in Australia, which is a big trek.”
How’s the swimming going for the triathlon? That’s a totally different ball game…
“A totally different ball game. And the one I’m least well versed in. I’m terrible, but I’m getting better by the day. I started working with a coach, and the improvements have been massive. And I’m loving the technical aspect of it. It’s really fun.”
What sort of triathlon distances are you looking at?
“I have no choice, I have to do an Ironman! I think it’ll be easier for me to be more competitive at the longer distances, which is why I want to do Ironman. Because my swim is weaker, but I can make up for in the two other disciplines, running and cycling. But, yeah, my Ironman plans have taken a bit of a hit because I broke my toe two months ago, so I’m starting to build back up from that now.
“That’s the other piece with training for this wild calendar, is that the bumps and bruises are plenty. Between the skiing and the swimming, my arms have never been sorer – I’m moving my body in way different directions.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
With the skimo – I had to look it up [it’s ski mountaineering]. It’s an Olympic sport, right? Sounds interesting.
“Skimo is something that I love. I’ve done it for the last five years. Being full-time in Andorra, I’ve incorporated it into my training for, for when I was racing in the WorldTour. There are just days in Andorra when it’s not possible to ride outside, and way better than the trainer is skiing and climbing up a mountain and skiing down. I found it to be quite transferable to my riding.
“The races I’m going to do are more oriented on the pure version of the racing form [rather than the short-form Olympic one]. And the big one is Pierra Menta, which they call the Tour de France of skimo. It’s a four-day stage race in France. And I’m doing it with [former Uno-X Mobility rider] Amund Jansen, who recently retired as a pro cyclist as well. His son goes to the same school as my kids.”
I was going to ask whether you’d taken up any new hobbies in your retirement, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve had much of an opportunity.
“Not at all – I have no time right now. I’m trying to actually be a bit more of a present dad. And then the other piece [with these new sports] is that the equipment management is shocking.
“The other thing I’m learning about right now, especially entering the gravel world, is the privateer life, and the necessity of having to be more present online, creating more content, being a better storyteller. Those things I don’t think are appreciated in the WorldTour. A lot of WorldTour riders think, ‘Oh, this guy has got it easy. He just has to do 15 bike races a year, that’s it’. But it’s actually quite a bit of work creating intriguing content that generates eyeballs and revenue for sponsors.”
You made the final stage of the Tour de France last year sound especially brutal with the weather and the cobbles [Woods described the Champs-Elysées pavé as “inhumane and awful” after 20 days’ racing in his blog post]. But you still managed to savour it as you knew it was probably your final Tour – and then it turned out to be your final day’s racing. It sounds like a reminder to savour every moment…
“Yes. Especially when you do a lot of races, it’s easy to just kind of go through the motions and and think you’re going to be there again the next year.
“It’s easy to fall into that trap, and I found myself doing that a lot last couple years. I didn’t expect the Tour to be my last race, so I wasn’t savouring it as my last race. But I did savour it because I was pretty confident was going to be my last Tour.”
What do you think of the inclusion of Montmartre again in this year’s Tour de France?
“I’m torn on the Montmartre stage. I think it’s so amazing doing it – I’ve done it now at the Tour, I also did the Olympics there. And going up Montmartre, even when it was raining, was incredible. The ambience, the fans, the noise. It’s so cool. So a lot of me loves that.
“But the pro cyclist in me hates it. At least the pro cyclist that’s a climber that’s never going to do a result in that stage. Like, what an iconic stage to win on now. For someone outside of cycling, like when I was watching it just as a fan of the sport in my early 20s, I always wondered why guys didn’t race the Champs-Elysees more. So to me, it seems like it’s more of a race to the finish. So I understand it from an entertainment perspective. But like I said, as a guy who’s raced that race five times, I hated it.”
Michael Woods begins his ‘bucket list year on February 14 at Santa Vall, Sant Gregori, Spain.
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