Michael Woods on Tadej Pogacar and GP de Montréal: "UAE are just going to make the race super hard, because that's the best way for him to win"

The GP de Montréal takes place today in Canada and unlike Friday's Québec circuit, this one is more fit for the climbers. UAE Team Emirates pushed the pace hard from early on last year for Adam Yates who then attacked to victory and the country's national champion Michael Woods believes the team will deploy a similar strategy today for Tadej Pogacar.

"In some senses, he's a problem, but in other senses, he makes the race really simple and easy. It's not a complicated race tomorrow. It's super challenging in the sense that it's just demanding from a physical perspective," Woods said in words to CyclingWeekly. The Canadian champion believes there won't be much tactical aspect to the race, but instead a show of force from UAE and then an attack from the Slovenian. Whether it will be enough to take the victory is a different question.

"And with Pogačar being there, you can almost guarantee that UAE are just going to make the race super hard, because that's the best way for him to win," the veteran argues. "And then for me, it just makes my life both really easy and really hard. Easy in the sense of tactics, and very hard in the sense of just having to execute a plan." A strong and in-form puncheur, Woods will like the profile of the race, but his top result is only an 8th spot from back in 2019 which he will hope to improve on.

"Last year I was a bit disappointed with my performance. It was a perfect race for me in the sense that it was really hard, really demanding, and it was such an attritional race, especially with the extra lap... I just remember feeling very upset and disappointed with my performance, not being able to be up there with Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov," he shares.

"I think we made some mistakes that day, we rode too much on the front, too early, and that cost us a bit, and I just wasn't good enough. I didn't have any real race days prior to Montréal last year, whereas I've got the Vuelta under my belt now. I think that's really going to help me for this race." This year he's struggled with illness until the second half of the season, but proved to be back to his best level with a strong win at the Vuelta a España on the Puerto de Ancares.

"I had this bacterial infection that we couldn't figure out until May. During that period, I really thought that I was just getting old, and my performance was sliding. At that moment, I was thinking that I definitely wouldn't go till 2026. Now that I'm doing well, and I'm feeling good, I certainly want to do next year, and then I'll make a decision after that for 2026," he concludes - noting that the 2026 World Championships take place in Montréal.