Woods: I blew up and felt like I was just treading water
20 January 2019 07:10
Michael Woods (EF Education First Pro Cycling) returned to the Tour Down Under for the third time in his short professional career this week. Despite a hillier course than previous years, Woods was unable to best his fifth place on general classification from three years ago, finishing seventh on the final stage at Willunga Hill and seventh on GC. Going into the final stage, and based on previous editions of the race, a group of climbing specialists including Woods, George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), Wout Poels (Team Sky) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), were all hoping to be aggressive in the hope of at least taking the stage and with a faint possibility of taking the overall. Attacks from Team Sky's Poels and Kenny Elissonde were ultimately fruitless, however, as Richie Porte surged to the line to take a sixth consecutive stage victory on Willunga Hill.ADVERTISEMENT Woods did his best to match the Australian - they were on the same time on GC ahead of the stage - but was unable to hold Porte's wheel in the final few hundred metres. "It was hard, disappointing," Woods told reporters after the stage. "I felt really good today and felt like I did a really good job of positioning, when Richie [Porte] went I followed but Richie is so good on this climb, it's tailor made for him. "I really struggle on the non-steep climbs, especially if there's headwind and he just tore me apart. I blew up and felt like I was just treading water for the last kilometre, just trying to stay afloat and guys kept on coming past me. That's the disappointing part of racing to win, when you fail you blow up big time."
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