Harrison Wood can’t have too many complaints about his 2024 race schedule: in his second year as a pro with WorldTour team Cofidis, the 24-year-old has ridden and completed the Giro d’Italia, finished another four top-tier stage races, and lined up in the two Italian Monuments: Milan-Sanremo and Il Lombardia. “Since the end of February, I’ve done very few non-WorldTour races, and I’ve always been up against the very best,” the Briton tells Rouleur of a proper schooling in cycling’s highest division.
In all, Wood has ridden 75 race days and always had one clear role: that of a domestique. As his constant selection in the biggest races highlights, Cofidis have been pleased with his work and progression as a trusted helper, but his obedience to the job has curiously worked against him. “At the start of the year they were discussing prolonging my contract and me staying with the team for a few years more, but around the time of Paris-Nice they told me to wait a bit,” he says. “And since then they’ve been umming and ahhing.”
The reason behind Cofidis’s indecisiveness and leaving Wood waiting is that the French team are battling to save their WorldTour licence, with the current three-year points cycle coming to a close at the end of the 2025 season. As things stand, Cofidis would be the 18th-ranked team – enough to secure WorldTour status, but things remain too close for comfort. Because Wood has been carrying bottles, sticking his face in the wind and delivering his team leaders, he’s only accrued 57 points over the past two seasons (the equivalent of finishing fifth or sixth in a single Grand Tour stage), and Cofidis now need big point earners to guarantee survival.
“It’s annoying and I’m out in the lurch because at the start of the season we were looking good and they were talking about keeping me, but the points situation is flying around and it means the team has entered into a transfer window where they need to sign riders who score points,” Wood continues. “I can understand it as if they don’t score points they won’t be WorldTour, but it’s not my problem if you tell me not to score WorldTour points and I don’t. We get to August and you say I’ve not scored points, it’s a bit weird.
Wood sat with Ineos Grenadiers rider Geraint Thomas during the 2024 Giro d’Italia (Image by SWpix.com)
“I’m not complaining about riding these big races, but it’s very hard to win a race or score points…