Canadian rider
The 35-year-old from
Woods said the
He led a portion of the 234-kilometre race and was involved in the final sprint, but was unable to crack the top three with
"It was bittersweet. To have done so well but not come back with a medal was disappointing but also exhilarating. It was so cool being in the front of the race," Woods said in an interview from
"I'll forever reflect on that race and think of what I could have done differently to have won," he added. "I know if I had played my cards maybe a bit differently, there was an opportunity to medal, if not win."
The experience has convinced him to keep going "at least" until the 2024
Woods also placed fifth overall at last year's Tour de Romandie, Tour de Suisse and Tour of
"It (2021) was certainly my most successful season of my career, the best season of my career," Woods said. "I'm really proud of it. But at the same time, it's left me hungry for more. I felt like I was so close on several occasions to just getting a big win."
"So all those things have motivated me. They've shown me I'm capable of being there. But also capable of winning," he added. "Now it's time for me to just actually do that, put the bike over the line first. That's my objective for this year."
Woods has already won one battle — recovering from COVID-19.
"Unfortunately my daughter came back from daycare and took the whole Woods family down," said the father of two.
He said the symptoms were "quite mild."
"It being Omicron and also because we're all vaccinated, it didn't hit us too hard. I only missed a few days of training … I took the allotted isolation period and came back and really didn't feel that I lost too much. The first few days I wasn't feeling great but I feel like I'm coming back into the form I was at this time last year"
Woods has his eye on several races in 2022.
"My big goal in cycling is to win a Monument (race) or a global championships. And I haven't done that yet," Woods said at the
The Monuments are five classic one-day races:
Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Amstel Gold Race and La Fleche Wallonne make up the Ardennes Classic, three prestigious one-day races in mid-April in
Woods also wants to make his mark at the Tour de France.
"My big ambition is to try and win a (Tour) stage," he said.
He won stages in the Spanish Vuelta in 2018 and 2020 and was runner-up at a stage in the 2018 Giro D'Italia.
Woods finished third in Stage 8 of last year's Tour and joined
He pulled out of the race after the 18th stage to give himself more time for the trip to
Woods subsequently won the mountain classification in the Tour de Suisse.
Woods, starting his second year with
Woods finished second at the 2018 Liege-Bastogne-Liege and fifth in 2019 when Fuglsang won with Astana. He noted Canadian
"I feel like at the Classics, particularly now, if you have a two-pronged approach, it makes a huge difference," Woods said. "With Jakob, I know I can learn so much more from him. He's a great rider. I've always loved watching him race."
With
Woods is excited about racing with Houle again. The former Astana rider has supported Woods twice at the
"He's such a great guy, such a great teammate he's going to really help bring everyone's level up. Now we have five Canadian riders in the (UCI) WorldTour on this team, I think we're really going to set the bar high and lead by example. And when you have Canadians having success … at the highest level, it inspires others to do well."
Founded in 2014 as the
"Those two are the reason why I'm a pro cyclist today," Woods, a former middle-distance runner, said of the support he received early in his cycling career from Adams and Saldanha.
"When I came over, they'd already created an environment for me to succeed. And really try and put Canadian cycling on the map. And with
Woods' first outing is next month's
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