Mike Woods of East York, Ontario won the La Route d’Occitanie, a four stage cycling race in southwest France on Sunday according to the Canadian Press. It is the second straight year that Woods won La Route d’Occitanie, as he also won in 2022.
Woods is the only Canadian in the history of the competition to win La Route d’Occitanie, and now he has won it twice. The only cyclist who has won La Route d’Occtianie more times than Woods is Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle of Lembeye, France, who won in 1980, 1983, and 1989.
Woods had an overall time of 18 hours and two seconds. He reached the podium by 42 seconds as Einer Rubio of Colombia finished in fourth place with a time of 18 hours and 44 seconds. Cristian Rodriguez of Spain won the silver medal with a time of 18 hours and 12 seconds. Georg Steinhauser of Germany won the bronze medal with a time of 18 hours and 43 seconds.
In the third stage of the race, Woods had the fastest time of five hours, two minutes and 15 seconds. He beat Rodriguez by three seconds.
When Woods won the 2022 La Route d’Occitanie, he had a winning time of 14 hours, 33 minutes and 58 seconds. The gold medal will give Woods confidence as he prepares for the men’s road cycling events at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
