Canadian Michael Woods of Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies climbed into the overall lead Friday at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah with a win on Stage 5. Woods claimed the biggest win of his career in the shadow of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, giving his team back-to-back victories at the “America’s Toughest Stage Race."

In the final 100-meter sprint of the difficult circuit race, Woods put in a massive acceleration that no one could match to cross the line in a time of two hours and three minutes. Sonny Colbrelli (Italy) of Bardiani-CSF and Stage 1 winner Kiel Reijnen (USA) of UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team finished two seconds behind the Canadian, taking second and third place respectively.

“Going into that final climb, I tried to be in the best position as possible, just steady pace for as long as possible until I hit it out. It was a tough last 200 meters, but I managed to hold the rest of the peloton off,” Woods said. “It’s the biggest win of my career, it was a surreal moment for sure. I couldn’t believe it.”

The stage win for Woods put him in the overall leader’s jersey, with a four-second advantage on the general classification over Brent Bookwalter (USA) of BMC Racing Team. Previous G.C. race leader Jure Kocjan (Slovenia) of Team SmartStop dropped to third place overall, just five seconds down. Reijnen, who wears the points jersey, sits in fourth spot on G.C.

“I didn't expect to be in yellow (jersey) going into the stage tomorrow. I thought I'd be trying to get into yellow on Saturday, but you can never plan for these things and you always want to seize a win when you get that opportunity,” added Woods, who is racing in his first Tour of Utah. “I put a big ‘x’ on the calendar when we got the invite to this race just because it really does suit my skill set.”