'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Canadian rider Michael Woods will lead the Israel Start-Up Nation team at the Tour de France.
"His success in the (Ardennes) Classics, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse gave him -- and us -- the confidence that he can play the role in the greatest cycling race of all, the Tour," team sports director Rik Verbrugghe said in a statement Monday.
"I expect him to fight for stage wins and be there in the GC (general classification) hunt as he did in the Tour de Suisse. The team's primary focus will be to protect Woodsy and provide all the support he will need."
The Israel Start-Up Nation team is also home to British star Chris Froome, a four-time Tour winner who is looking to regain his top form in the wake of a horrific June 2019 crash while preparing for the Criterium du Dauphine.
Woods is the first rider named to the Israel Start-Up Nation lineup for the Tour, which runs June 26 to July 18. He will then switch his focus to the Olympic men's road race, which is slated for July 24.
"I am honoured to be given this position, especially considering the quality of the team we have," Woods said of the Tour.
"My main goals and priorities are clear -- stage wins first and try to go high on the general classification. We want to do well on the GC, no doubt, most important thing for me is the stage wins. That's the main focus," he added.
The 34-year-old from Ottawa finished fifth in the Tour de Suisse after a runner-up performance in Sunday's final stage. Woods won the race's mountain classification. Previously this year, he placed fourth at Fleche Wallonne and fifth at the Tour de Romandie and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Despite breaking two ribs in a crash, Woods finished 32nd in 2019 in his debut at the Tour de France. He did not race in the 2020 edition.
Woods, who now makes his home in Andorra with his wife and daughter, left the EF Pro Cycling team at the end of 2020 to join Israel Start-Up Nation, which is co-owned by Canadian-Israeli entrepreneur Sylvan Adams.
A former elite middle-distance runner, Woods came to cycling late after a series of foot injuries ended his running career in 2011.
Woods' cycling resume also includes a victory in the 2019 Milano-Torino one-day race, stage wins at the 2018 and 2020 Spanish Vuelta, a bronze medal in the road race at the 2018 world championships, a second-place finish at the 2018 Liege-Bastogne-Liege and third-place at the 2020 Fleche Wallonne.
Woods was 55th at the road race at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He crashed twice in the lead-up to the Games, breaking his hand in three places at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and suffering a partially displaced fracture of his left femur at the Tour of Poland.
Woods had surgery after the Spanish Vuelta last fall to remove screws from his right femur, broken in an earlier crash at the Paris-Nice race. He still has a pin the length of his femur.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.