Canada’s Michael Woods won the mountainous 13th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Friday, while Primoz Roglic took another bite out of the race lead held by Ben O’Connor.
Woods, of Ottawa, dropped the other breakaway riders and finished the 176-kilometre route from Lugo to a category-one finish at Puerto de Ancares 45 seconds ahead of runner-up Mauro Schmid.
It was the third career win at the Vuelta for the cyclist from Ottawa.
“I’m on Cloud 9 right now,” the 37-year-old Woods said. “My big goal was to win a race with this Canadian jersey. I’ve had a tough season this year with illness and I’ve had a tough race with some bad luck, a lot of mechanicals, crashes and mistimed moments. So, this is a big moment of catharsis, a big moment of relief. The pressure has been building and to get this win now, I’m on cloud 9.
“It’s my third Vuelta stage win and I’m really proud of that. Just the Giro d’Italia stage win is missing. I’m not getting any younger so it’s always nice to win at this age. I’m going to savour this one.”
Behind him, Roglic attacked the group of title challengers and opened up gaps ahead of all of them. He carved almost two minutes out of O’Connor’s lead, who has seen the nearly five-minute lead he established on Stage 6 shrink to 1:21 over the three-time Vuelta champion.
The three-week race stays in northwestern Spain on Saturday for Stage 14, a mountainous 200-kilometre ride from Villafranca del Bierzo to Villablino. It finishes in Madrid on Sept. 8.