CROSSOVER STARS
Hands up those of you for whom road cycling has been your number one sport since your parents disposed of your stabilisers? It certainly won’t apply to all of our readership. While many of us now turn to Rapha instead of retro football tops, it wasn’t always so. There’s nothing wrong with that, but can a late entry into cycling hold you back? Certainly not in the case of the people who we spoke to for this feature; athletes who have either made a world-class imprint in other sports before excelling at cycling, or sports men and women who have used their experience in cycling to maximise their fitness in a new sport. Here they reveal their sporting past and unpick the crossover benefits.
THE RUNNER
Canadian Michael Woods has won two stages of the Vuelta a España and finished on the podium at the 2018 World Championships. This past winter he secured a lucrative move from EF Education First to Israel Start-Up Nation, and has already grabbed second overall at Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var. It’s a mighty fine palmarès for a middle-distance runner.
“As a junior, I was five-time national champion,” Woods tells us. “I broke the Canadian junior records for the mile and 3km in 3:57mins and 7:58mins, respectively. It earnt me a full
