EF Pro Cycling's Michael Woods crashed in Paris-Nice in March and broke his femur. However, his recovery and the coronavirus blockade in Spain almost coincided, and both the Tour and the Olympics were postponed.

"Regarding the postponement of the Olympics to the summer of 2021, Woods said this week on his team's website.

"Or the Grand Tour, everything has been postponed. And this is the first day the Spanish government has allowed me to ride outside since the blockade was lifted," he said, realizing that breaking his leg was a major setback, but if so, it happened at exactly the "perfect" time.

"It was really weird," Woods admitted. 'It's crazy to be lucky and unlucky at the same time. A broken femur is obviously not lucky. The Olympics, the Tour, all of those things were completely jeopardized.

"It hurt to think that all the big dreams and goals I had, all of them, were gone. It was probably the most depressing moment of my time with this injury. But then I went to the hospital and saw masked nurses and doctors everywhere and realized how insignificant my injury was compared to what was happening," Woods said of the COVID-19 epidemic.

On his recovery, Woods explained: "It's almost 100 percent. I can't run yet, but I can do everything else. I can walk with my daughter, I can ride my bike. It's like nothing ever happened, and I feel completely normal again on the bike.

"Basically, it's like competing in the Tour Down Under in January, in late October, early November. You're sitting on the bike, same feeling, same weight."

Woods explained that there is a slight power difference between his left and right legs, "but they're pretty close to equal right now."

"I figure I can be fit anytime in two months," he said. I'm a responder. I'm a responder, in a good way and a bad way. Give me a break and I can be the worst athlete ever, give me two months of hard work and I can be one of the best riders in the world."

Much of the hard work since March has come courtesy of a physical therapist based near Woods' home in Girona, Spain.

"I was really lucky to have a physiotherapist named Richard Spink helping me. 'He came to my house five or six times a week for the duration of my treatment. For the first few weeks I was bending terribly uncomfortably and he focused on increasing my range of motion every day."

"Some of these sessions were brutal, but it made a huge difference. Two weeks after my injury, I was able to get my knee on the bike. Being able to ride the bike was huge, and the healing process was much faster. All of a sudden I was able to move, and it really helped my mental health because I went from just sitting on the couch to actually being able to do something.

"Had I been in isolation, I could have easily gone in a different direction," Woods admitted. [25] "But the doctors on the team prepared a note for Rich to get approval from the government to come see me. Without that access, I don't think I would have been able to put a foot on the bike for months, because it was so easy to just sit there and get stiff."

Whether Woods will be able to recover sufficiently to start in Nice in the two months between now and the start of the Tour de France, scheduled for August 29-September 20, remains to be seen, but as of April, one month into his recovery, Woods will be a world champion Road Race (September 27) and next year's Olympics, and he said he was eager to get back to 100% condition for both events.

The 33-year-old also said he was happy to have had time to spend with his family at home in Girona while he recuperated away from competition.

"It was hard not being able to move around and go outside during this time, but I still got to spend a lot of time with my daughter Max. Without this injury, I would not have been able to spend as much time with my daughter due to my travel schedule and training.

"I think it has put a lot of things into perspective. It made me realize how important it is to be with Max. It made me realize what is most important to me."