Harrison Wood says he is “confused” after leaving Cofidis and finding himself in the market to join a new team.
The 24-year-old British professional has previously been supported by the Rayner Foundation and recently moved to Portuguese UCI Continental team Sabgal-Anicolor after three years with French WorldTour outfit Cofidis. During that time he competed in the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de Suisse and several of the biggest one-day races in history.
“I have a lot of respect for the people at Cofidis and a lot of love for our team atmosphere and our riders,” Wood told us. Cycling Weekly recent. “It was great for them to get me into some really big tournaments, but then I felt like it was almost counterproductive for me to get into those tournaments because it meant I couldn’t get into slightly smaller tournaments to try and get results and really show myself. I.
“It was great to do races like the Volta Catalunya and the Giro d’Italia, but it was almost counterproductive because it meant I couldn’t race in smaller races and maybe actually finish in the top ten or something like that.”
“That’s definitely one thing I’ve struggled with understanding Cofidis,” he added. “I ended up racing in all these big races, so the team must have had a lot of confidence in me from the beginning to let me race in these races and be happy with my performance. So I guess that’s what I didn’t understand, like They’re hoping that if I do well, then I should probably compete in a slightly smaller race, which leaves me a bit confused at the end.”
Wood continued: “In the Giro, I was on some of the harder stages up to the final climb a few times. I was able to set up for the likes of Simon Geschke on GC and other things. People like that help so I’m very happy about that.
“Then at the Tour of Switzerland it was a similar story, I only fell behind with six or seven kilometers to go, so obviously I had made some good progress. So I guess I was a little bit disappointed that I wasn’t really making progress I think. Another opportunity next year could be another big stepping stone or a potential breakthrough.”
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Despite his initial disappointment at being sacked, Wood explained that he was determined to use his frustration to improve his performance heading into the new season with a new team. He also said another French WorldTour team was briefly interested in his signature before he went elsewhere.
His new team, Sabgal-Anicolor, are at continental level but Wood said he can already see they will perform well above their means.
He said: “I got the opportunity from Sabgal-Anicolor and I thought I could actually benefit from it elsewhere, the teams there could probably help me a lot in racing and I could repay the favor in other ways and then I The goal is to return to the World Tour at another point in time.
“Honestly, our team is not a Continental line-up, it’s more like a professional Continental team. The equipment helps us do that as well, we have Factor bikes, lightweight Princeton wheels, good equipment, so, The team is like a higher-level institution with a mainland license.”
Joining Sabgal is fellow Brit Mason Hollyman of Israel-Premier Tech. This isn’t the end of WorldTour dreams either, with Julius Johansson joining Emirates from Portugal this winter.
