Harrison Wood: Cyclist from Britain sets sights on competing in Tour de France

Cofidis Cyclist Harrison Wood Aims for Tour de France After Criterium du Dauphine Selection

In an unexpected move, 22-year-old British cyclist Harrison Wood has been included in the Cofidis team for this year’s Criterium du Dauphine. The race is seen as a warm-up for the Tour de France and thus provides a significant opportunity to showcase his abilities and enhance his chances of racing in the prestigious competition.

Wood started out playing football but eventually found his way into cycling through Mid Devon Cycling Club. He joined an amateur team in France before spending two years riding semi-professionally in the Netherlands. Last year, he signed up as a trainee with top French side Cofidis.

The news of his selection came when he was training for another race – Tour de Suisse – in the French Alps. Although it is not uncommon for teams to prefer putting pro cyclists into other races such as Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a España instead of directly diving into Tour de France due to its stressfulness, Wood hopes that if he does well at Criterium du Dauphine, which saw Chris Froome win ahead of three of his four victories at TdF, then there are no reasons why he would not be selected by them.

“If I do well this week then normally I should ride it,” said Wood after finishing first stage on Sunday. “But it’s my first year as a pro-cyclist so sometimes…”

Ambitions and Dreams

Despite being relatively new to professional cycling scene, Wood has set high ambitions for himself already; winning stages would be amazing but also very hard according to him. However, with support from his teammates who share similar aspirations and goals to win stage races, he is all in for it.

For Wood, riding Tour de France has been a big dream of his. “That for me is my big dream,” he said, “to be able to ride the Tour de France…it would just be amazing to do it.”

Cycling Journey

Wood’s journey to elite level cycling has not been typical as he started out playing football before getting into cycling through Mid Devon Cycling Club. He joined an amateur team in France in 2019 and then spent two years riding semi-professionally in the Netherlands before signing up with Cofidis last year.

The Future Ahead

It remains to see how Wood performs at Criterium du Dauphine and whether this will lead him towards fulfilling his ultimate ambition – participating in Tour de France. But one thing is certain; if anything can be learned from Harrison Wood’s story so far, it is that perseverance and dedication pay off eventually.