5 seconds, this is the time that separated Mike Woods from Israel Startup Nation and the victory in the French column Alpes Maritimes in the mountains above the Azure coast in France. The first episode of the big drama opens almost immediately after the leap to the third and final segment in a column led by Canadian startup Nation Woods following its big win yesterday.
The fact that he led in just one second invited as expected attacks from his opponents in the race, and such were no less than a dozen, due to the small time gaps that allowed at least 3 or 4 teams to believe they could close the gap and win. The startup prepared for this scenario and repulsed attacks by dangerous riders one after the other until it finally ‘allowed’ a group of 15 riders to escape while keeping them at a gap of about two minutes, when the plan was to close the gap towards the final ascent in the race. “We felt we were in control,” said team director Rene Anderella.
But a very high pace of the runaway group and the fact that start-up riders were exhausted all day in a chase that did not stop for a moment and was placed on their shoulders only, meant that the gap towards the last ascent in the race was a little more than a minute, and as it turned out later. “When I realized that my friends had already given me everything,” Woods later said. “I decided I was going alone. Our car was amazing until then as a team and I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Woods opened burners towards the end of the ascent and ran a ‘full gas’ chase down for almost 25km. “I felt very strong,” he later said. What seemed at the beginning of the chase impossible became almost possible as he neared the finish line, but when he crossed the finish line “18 seconds after Italian winner Gian Luca Ramblica, he turned out to be just 5 seconds behind him in first place overall. He settled for second place on the podium.” Of course we wanted to win, but the truth is we come out with great confidence and momentum ahead of our next races, “he said. Woods.
At the same time, Startup Nation opened its appearances in the Emirates column. Israeli rider Omar Goldstein was part of an escape group, before falling. Mathieu van der Paul of the Netherlands won the first section at El Mirfa (176 km from El Dahafra).
