Skip to main content

Latest

18 August 2025

The Epilogue13

Almost every time I race a bike, there is a point where I am flying along in a line of riders at 70 km/h, and I think, “A million years ago, we were monkeys.” Even…
Read On
27 July 2025

Champs-Élysées: The Last Dance of the Monkeys9

Pro cyclists are the masters of breaking things down. Just go for a ride with one, and you’ll hear them say something like, “We only have to get over this climb, then there’s a bit…
Read On
View of the back of Mike Woods riding between barriers and crowds towards the finish during his stage win in La Vuelta 2018.
25 July 2025

Winning from the break4

Winning from the break is the closest thing in cycling to playing jazz. The best jazz players in the world know the rules, they know what they are supposed to do, but through their mastery…
Read On
Michael Woods climbs the Mont Ventoux in stage 16 of the Tour de France 2025 as spectators line the road, 22/07/2025.
23 July 2025

The Tour: The Hardest Endurance Event on the Planet6

Doing the Tour de France as a team with the objective of winning a stage is binary. Success is either 1 or 0. When you take on the GC, it has its risks; your GC…
Read On
View of the riders of the IPT team sitting at a coffee shop during the Tour de France 2025.
21 July 2025

Rest Day3

Testosterone is a powerful hormone. I once listened to a This American Life podcast where a man had a condition that caused him to no longer produce testosterone. Since this hormone is the root of…
Read On
Frame from the movie Good Will Hunting showing Matt Damon holding up a burning piece of paper.
19 July 2025

Top Five10

There’s a scene in *Good Will Hunting*, where Matt Damon, playing a wildly prodigious math whiz named Will Hunting, holds up a paper—containing a problem that his Harvard professor, Dr. Lambeau has spent the better…
Read On
18 July 2025

The TT is Dog4


After two consecutive days of hard racing, I’m now sitting in my bed at a Best Western just outside of Pau, excited for what will be our final TT of this race. I’ve stayed in…
Read On
Photo of Team DS Sam Bewley (in car) handing a musette to Michael Woods during stage 9 of the Tour de France 2025
15 July 2025

My Dumoulin Moment5

On stage 17 of the 2017 Giro, I found myself halfway up, on what was our second ascent of, the iconic Stelvio. I had been dropped from the break, and then dropped from the chasing…
Read On
Tim Wellens and Michael Woods lead a group up a hill in the 2025 Tour de France on July 10th 2025.
14 July 2025

Ego and the gamble of the breakaway rider11

For the past 9 days now, I have been banking heavily on the fact that I will one day, in this race, get into a breakaway and ride to glory. In many ways, I love…
Read On
Spotify playlist image
11 July 2025

The Playlist3

We have now officially entered, at least for me, the doldrums of Grand Tour racing. Stages 6–10 of any Grand Tour are daunting. Gone is the excitement of starting the biggest race in the world,…
Read On
Mike Woods riding stage 16 of the 2023 Tour de France, a TT stage between Passy and Combloux, 18/07/2023.
9 July 2025

The Subtle Art of Sagging a TT7

I woke up this morning in a lovely hotel beside a lake just east of Caen, France. The hotel was a far cry from the Novotel we had been sleeping in for the past week.…
Read On
View of the peloton riding through the town of Béthune in France as spectators line the route during stage 3 of the 2025 Tour de France, 7 July 2025. Photo by Kei Tsuji, Sprint Cycling Agency
8 July 2025

Rider Safety17

Although the Tour is 21 days of racing, as a rider, it might as well feel like a lifetime. We are now three days into the tour, but we have already spent almost a week…
Read On