Tiger Woods sets up an eagle putt on the ninth green and sinks it to pull within a stroke of Europe's Jon Rahm. (0:52)

PARIS -- Tiger Woods is not used to others celebrating at his expense, but there he was on the 17th green Sunday afternoon, helpless. Jon Rahm had knocked his approach shot stiff, a short birdie putt away from putting Woods out of his misery, another Ryder Cup match lost.

One of golf's great mysteries continues: Why is Woods' Ryder Cup record so lousy?

He went 0-4 at Le Golf National after what was an inspired effort to even be part of the U.S. team. He came to France off the jubilation of victory at the Tour Championship, a satisfying-yet-emotional win that obviously left him spent, and left with the worst record of any player in the competition.

Two more Ryder Cup partners went on his resume -- Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau -- adding to a long list of infamy that has seen Woods' overall record drop to 13-21-3. He's 9-19-1 with partners, and lost at singles for the first time since 1997.

All manner of explanations have been given over the years, none of which really apply now, if they ever did: he doesn't care; he doesn't like playing with a partner; he's horrible at team events.

Woods might have had his issues 20 years ago, but now as one of the game's elder statesmen, he's become heavily involved in the U.S. Ryder Cup process that selects the captains and assistant captains. He's already signed on to be the U.S. Presidents Cup captain in 2019 -- and why would a guy who doesn't give a rip do that? -- with an eye on a future Ryder Cup captaincy.

And if you want to put Woods down to withering in the moment, that simply ignores his long career body of work, which includes his victory a week ago in Atlanta.

"We all saw his great win last week, and I think that took something out of him,'' said Francesco Molinari, who went 5-0 for the Europeans and three times defeated Woods in the team competition. "But he was still hitting great shots. He's still a really tough competitor.''

"I think he's frustrated and also disappointed because he knows he was playing well coming into the tournament,'' said Joe LaCava, Woods' caddie. "But I don't think he's going to let it spoil the year that he had. It is going to sting for a while. Didn't win a match, and that hurts.

"But you know what, better things are ahead.''

First off, there will be rest.

Woods looked like he could use it. In brief comments after losing his match to Rahm 2&1, he was resigned to having cost the U.S. a chance at victory with his play over the past three days. A few hours later, when the entire team conducted a post-match news conference, Woods looked exhausted, as if he could fall asleep at any moment.

"I played seven out of nine weeks because I qualified for [the WGC event in] Akron, and all of those are big events, starting with the Open Championship, you've got the World Golf Championships, you've got another major championship, you've got the [FedEx] playoffs and then you have the Ryder Cup on the back side.

"So a lot of big events, and a lot of focus, a lot of energy goes into it. I was fortunate enough to have won one, and we were all coming here on a high and feeling great about our games, about what we were doing, and excited about playing this week.''

It never carried over. On Tuesday, Phil Mickelson said "I honestly think this is the best I've seen him swing the club since 2000.'' But Woods never brought that same speed and cohesion to the event.

At times throughout the Ryder Cup, Woods appeared to be moving slowly and swinging without much conviction. He had his moments, just not enough of them. On Sunday, he eagled the ninth hole and birdied the 12th, but as LaCava said, "That's never going to be enough in something like this.''

After posting seven top-7s, climbing from 656th in the world to 13th, winning his first tournament in five years and being part of the Ryder Cup team, Woods, 42, is likely in for a long, extended break.

There is a chance he may play a late fall event on the PGA Tour, prior to his scheduled Thanksgiving weekend match with Mickelson, followed by the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. It makes sense if that is all he does.

"For me, it's been a lot of golf in a short period,'' he said. "I'll have a better understanding of what my training needs to be for next year so that I certainly can endure the entire season because this year was very much up in the air of how much I would play or if I would play at all.''

As it turned out, Woods played a ton, missing just two cuts and competing in 68 official rounds on the PGA Tour. The Ryder Cup made for a 19th event, a total number of tournaments he's exceeded once in the past 13 years.

So yes, Woods had a lousy Ryder Cup. So did Mickelson. So did No. 1-ranked Dustin Johnson. Jordan Spieth lost at singles for the sixth time in six tries in both Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup competition. Bryson DeChambeau, in his first Ryder Cup, was shut out.

There was plenty of blame to go around, but Woods' name will show up at the bottom of the stat sheet, his 0-4 record there for all to see where the scoreboard is the ultimate judge.

And yet, Woods deserves a bigger picture view. After all he endured to get back here, and after the success he had along the way, the Ryder Cup pain is undeniable. So are the bodily aches he has endured along the way.

But it will pass in time, and just getting here will be celebrated, even if the result will not.</s>Valverde takes world title in four-man final sprint

Valverde wins the sprint from the front, denying Bardet, Woods and Dumoulin in attritional race that fractured on leg-breaking final climb.

Alejandro Valverde (Spain) took the world title after leading out the final four players in an attritional 265-kilometer race in the Austrian mountains. Romain Bardet (France) and Michael Woods (Canada) took second and third, having been unable to come around the Spaniard in the final kilometer. Tom Dumoulin took fourth after a brave solo chase to the leaders in the final kilometers.

“It’s just something incredible,” said Valverde. “There are so many years fighting, fighting, and finally, I achieved it.

“Many times I was very close and I have six medals and not one of them was a gold. Finally I could manage to pull it off. I knew I couldn’t mess it up in the last kilometer.”

The race kicked off almost from the gun, with two breaks going clear and joining forces after around 20km of racing. The break was made up of Robert Britton (Canada), Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden), Kasper Asgreen (Denmark), Conor Dunne, Ryan Mullen (both Ireland), Daniil Fominykh (Kazakhstan), Vegard Stake Laengen (Norway), Karel Hnik (Czech Republic), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (South Africa), Ilia Koshevoy (Belarus), and Laurent Didier (Luxembourg).

The break stretched out their gap to 19 minutes by the summit of the Gnadenwald, the first climb of the day, however, 200km remained and the peloton was calm.

As the race entered the first of the route’s six laps – each of which included the Igls climb – Great Britain, Slovenia, Austria, and France took to the front of the bunch, controlling the pace. The Spanish, French, and Polish kept close to to the front, but didn’t contribute to pacemaking.

As the kilometers ticked by, the difficulty of the mountainous route became evident, and riders constantly slipped off the back of the peloton. Likewise, the break started fatiguing, and the once-cohesive unit lost Mullen, Dunne, and Didier on the third ascent on the Igls.

Warren Barguil (France) hit the deck and pulled out on 100km, marking a blow for the French team, and shortly after, Peter Sagan (Slovakia) dropped out of the bunch, the constant climbing too much for him.

With 80km to go, the gap was down to seven minutes as the pace in the bunch notably increased, driven by GB and the Spanish. By the top of the fourth climb of Igls, the break was down to four; Laengen, Britton, Asgreen, and Van Rensburg.

With 200km down and 65km remaining, the race started hotting up, with Dario Cataldo (Italy), and Jesus Herrada (Spain) launching from the peloton. Shortly after, dangermen Vicenzo Nibali (Italy), and Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) bridged. They gained several seconds, but the Russian, GB, Spanish, and French teams soon brought them back. The next attack came from Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium), with Damiano Caruso (Spain) and Omar Fraile (Italy) soon joining him.

With 50km and one lap of the Igls remaining, all the main contenders were still present bar Sagan and Barguil, with Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) chasing hard after an earlier crash. The Van Avermaet group were 20 seconds in front of them and working well, with the break down to four minutes.

With only 45km remaining, flurries of short-lived attacks kept going off the front, with Germany, Italy, and France particularly active. This upping in pace bought back the trio of Caruso, Fraile, and Van Avermaet, and shelled Dan Martin (Ireland), Wout Poels (Netherlands), Kwiatkowski, and Simon Yates (GB). Up front, the original break was down to two, Asgreen and Laengen.

As the race started approaching the final ascent of the Igls, the two leaders, who had been out front all day, were still over two minutes in front.

The Italian team, still totally intact, took to the front on the climb, taking control for Gianni Moscon and Vicenzo Nibali. The Dutch, Spanish, and French kept close behind them in a bunch now down to around 60 riders.

On 24km to go, Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands) went clear, briefly breaking the rhythm of the race, though the bunch soon came back together. The change in pace was enough to drop several from the group, notably Nibali and Van Aevermaet. With 2km remaining of the last ascent of the Igls, the two remaining riders in the break were finally swallowed up.

Peter Kennaugh (GBR) attacked hard as the race approached the top of the climb, but soon faded. However, his acceleration drew out Michael Valgren (Denmark), who went over the summit with a decent gap. On the descent, several riders including Rui Costa (Portugal), Moscon, Thibaut Pinot (France), and Roglic lead the chase. Up front, Valgren had taken 30 seconds and looked comfortable, with just the steep Holl climb remaining.

In the run into the Holl, the French and Dutch teams chased hard, with the latter still boasting a strong number of riders. As the narrow, brutal climb kicked in, the bunch shattered, with the Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe and Pinot at the front, along with Valverde, Woods, and Moscon. Alaphilippe soon went backward, whilst Woods, Bardet, Moscon, and Valverde caught and dropped Valgren. Behind, Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) chased hard.

Woods went over the summit of the Holl first having set a fearsome pace, whilst Moscon went off the back.

The race was now led by Woods, Valverde, and Bardet, with Dumoulin not far behind. On the descent, the lead trio watched each other, none of them willing to commit. With 2km to go, Dumoulin’s furious chase paid off, as he made contact with the leaders.

In the final straight, Valverde led out the sprint, and stayed strong to the line, with Woods attempting to come around him but lacking the legs, and Dumoulin hesitating at the back.

“It was a long sprint and they put all the responsibility on me. When we got to 300m, I said, this is my distance. I went full-gas and finally I could achieve this victory,” said the tearful winner.</s>SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Tiger Woods kept bending over in anguish, his shoulders sinking further and further, the energy ebbing as he made his way around Le Golf National for the second time Saturday.

It was the body language of a tired, defeated golfer.

Quite a contrast to the previous weekend, when he triumphantly strutted down the final fairway at East Lake, savoring his first victory in more than five years as thousands of fans stormed the course behind him.

Then again, this is the Ryder Cup — one of the few blemishes on Woods’ brilliant record.

Nothing much has changed in France.

Woods dropped all three of his matches over the first two days, cut down each time by Europe’s most dynamic combination, mullet-sporting Tommy Fleetwood and British Open champion Francesco Molinari.

Playing with two different partners, none of Woods’ matches reached the 18th hole. In fact, he’s only held the lead for a grand total of three holes the entire weekend.

It was hardly what was expected from his first Ryder Cup appearance since 2012.

“The three matches we played, they never missed a putt inside 10 to 12 feet,” Woods groaned. “That’s hard to do. Playing against a team like that, that’s putting that well, you’re going to have to make a lot of birdies. We didn’t.”

Woods teamed with Patrick Reed for a pair of fourball matches, then switched to Bryson DeChambeau for the Saturday afternoon foursomes. The new partnership didn’t fare any better than the first one.

The duo known as “Moliwood” led from the very first hole on the way to a 5-and-4 whipping, the match ending when DeChambeau missed a birdie putt at the par-5 14th hole, before it even reached a closing stretch that looks like something out of Waterworld.

The struggles of Woods & Co. are a big reason his star-studded team faces a daunting 10-6 deficit heading to Sunday singles. While certainly not impossible to pull off such a comeback — it was done in 1999 by the Americans at Brookline, and again in 2012 by the Europeans at Medinah — the U.S. hasn’t won the Ryder Cup on this side of the Atlantic in a quarter-century.

“We’ve got some work to do,” Woods said. “Hopefully we can get off to a quick start and get up in some of these matches and turn the tide a little bit.”

Looking to get his career back on track after myriad physical problems and personal missteps, the 42-year-old Woods played in 19 events this season — roughly the number he used to take on in his prime. While his comeback from major back surgery has been nothing short of remarkable, it looks like the grind of the year and all the work he put in to get back on the course caught up with him at the worst possible time.

When you throw in the emotional drain of winning the Tour Championship for his 80th career triumph, Woods certainly looks like someone dealing with a severe letdown.

“Early in the week, he looked a little tired. His pace looked a little bit slow walking,” U.S. captain Jim Furyk said. “I think that’s expected, coming off a big win. You have to think emotionally what he put into his comeback to this season, the amount of golf he played leading up this, trying to make the Ryder Cup Team, almost winning the FedEx Cup. I mean, he put a lot of work and effort into it and played a lot more golf than he’s used to.”

Woods insisted that his body feels just fine.

His mindset is another issue.

“Just pretty (ticked) off, the fact that I lost three matches and don’t feel like I played poorly,” he said.

For whatever reason, the Ryder Cup has always been a struggle for Woods. The team nature of the event has never seemed to fit with his lone-wolf approach and steely focus. He’s played a total of 36 matches over eight appearances but won only 13. His record in fourballs and foursomes, when he goes out with a partner, is an ugly 9-19-1.

And, frankly, it would be hard for anyone to knock off Fleetwood and Molinari, who have become the first European duo to win all four of their Ryder Cup matches.

“That’s the frustrating thing about match play,” Woods said. “We can play well and nothing can happen. We ran up against two guys that were both playing well. And when one was out of the hole, especially in best-ball, the other one made birdie and vice versa. They did that a lot to us.”

Injuries prevented Woods from playing in the last two American victories, in 2008 and 2016.

He’s been part of only a single Ryder Cup-winning team over his career — 19 long years ago at Brookline.

Another still looms over Woods, dragging him down.</s>SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Tiger Woods, second all time with 14 major championships, and now second in the all-time loss column at the Ryder Cup.

Stroke play and match play, different beasts they are. It's no more apparent than looking at Woods' record in the biennial event, which dipped to 13-21-3 all time after Sunday's 2-up defeat at the hands of Jon Rahm on Sunday at Le Golf National.

For the week, Woods was a woeful 0-4, losing two four-ball matches alongside Patrick Reed before getting beat in foursomes with Bryson DeChambeau on Saturday afternoon. His inability to contribute a single point was just one of the many reasons the U.S. fell to Europe, 17 1/2/ to 10 1/2, and continued its 25-plus year drought overseas.

"Obviously very disappointing," Woods said. "Those are four points that aren't going towards our side. It's going towards their side.

"To have a Ryder Cup end that way, for me personally, it doesn't feel very good because I didn't help my teammates earn any points. At the end of the day, we came here as a team and we win or lose, and unfortunately we lost this one."

Woods was as much to blame as anyone, though Reed certainly didn't help much, struggling to keep himself in the hole on several occasions and contributing just one birdie in their Saturday morning four-balls match, a 4 and 3 loss to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. Three times Molinari and Fleetwood teamed up to beat a Woods-headlined duo.

It also didn't help that Woods was on the back end of his busiest year in five years, his 18 starts leading into the Ryder Cup the most he had made since 2013 when he had 19. It was also more than he played the past three years combined after having undergone four back surgeries, including one to fuse his spine.

Before the Ryder Cup, the 42-year-old Woods played seven tournaments in nine weeks. He found himself in contention on a few occasions and won for the first time in five years at the Tour Championship the week before the Ryder Cup.

It proved draining enough that U.S. captain Jim Furyk sat Woods on Friday afternoon because he was tired.

RELATED: How the Europeans came together for their resounding win

"All of those are big events, starting with the Open Championship," Woods said of the stretch. "You've got a World Golf Championship, you've got another major championship, you've got the [FedEx Cup] playoffs and then you have the Ryder Cup on the back side.

"So a lot of big events, and a lot of focus, a lot of energy goes into it. I was fortunate enough to have won one, and we were all coming here on a high and feeling great about our games, about what we were doing, and excited about playing this week."

In the end, though, Woods simply looked gassed for much of the week.

And on Sunday he trailed right from the start, losing the first hole to Rahm after the Spaniard stuck his approach to a few feet to set up an easy birdie.

The two matched scores for the next five holes before Rahm extended the lead with a par on the seventh after Woods missed the fairway off the tee.

Woods bounced back with an eagle at the par-5 ninth and pulled all square with another birdie on the 12th but that's where the good fortune ended. He bogeyed the next two holes to fall two back again and Rahm eventually closed out the match with a birdie on the 17th.

"For me, it's been a lot of golf for a short period of time," Woods said. "I'll have a better understanding of what my training needs to be for next year so that I certainly can endure the entire season because this year was very much up in the air of how much I would play or if I would play at all."

From that standpoint, the season was a success for Woods. His Ryder Cup record, though, remains another story.</s>Tiger Woods ‘Pissed Off’ After Falling To 0-3 At 2018 Ryder Cup

2018 has been a year of redemption for Woods, who won his first professional tournament in over five years last Sunday at the Tour Championship, but he has struggled this week at the Ryder Cup.

Woods has dropped all three of his matches throughout the tournament. He and partner Patrick Reed lost their fourball match in Friday’s morning session and the pair suffered another L in Saturday’s morning wave. The Big Cat got a new partner in Saturday’s foursome matchup, but he and Bryson DeChambeau were dusted by Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari, dropping Woods to 0-3 on the week.

The 14-time major champion isn’t pleased with his record, but he doesn’t think it’s indicative of how he’s played.

“Just pretty pissed off, the fact that I lost three matches and didn’t feel like I played poorly. That’s the frustrating thing about match play. We can play well and nothing can happen.”

Although it has been a tough tournament so far for Woods, he does have a chance for redemption Sunday. Woods will face Jon Rahm in the singles match at Le Golf National, with the United States looking to come back from a 10-6 deficit to retain the Cup.</s>INNSBRUCK, Austria -- Michael Woods fed off the crowd's energy in a big way Sunday at the men's road race world championship.

Woods, a 31-year-old from Ottawa, won bronze to become the first Canadian in the top three at the event since Steve Bauer finished third in 1984.

"My ears were ringing because the people were so loud and I could hear their cow bells," Woods said. "Even before the race, I told myself I'd try to get inspiration and energy from what the fans bring to the race. There were so many fans today."

Alejandro Valverde of Spain won gold and Romain Bardet of France took silver.

It's been an impressive year for Woods.

He won a stage of the Spanish Vuelta earlier this month, was second in a stage of the Giro d'Italia in May, and finished in second place at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in April.

A former elite distance runner at the University of Michigan, Woods switched to cycling due to a recurrent stress fracture in his foot.

"Coming from another sport, it's been hard for me to believe that I could win when so (many) good riders are in the field but my stage victory at La Vuelta helped me boost my confidence," Woods said. "Now I'm starting to believe in myself."

Sunday's win was Valverde's seventh time on the podium, but first time winning gold.

The Spanish rider sprinted to the world title after a grueling, mountainous race of 6 hours, 46 minutes through the Austrian Alps, including a final climb with a maximum gradient of 28 per cent.

Valverde led a group of four in the final kilometre, and he just remained ahead of Bardet and Woods in the sprint. Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands placed fourth.

The victory came 15 years after Valverde won silver in Hamilton, Ont., a feat he repeated in 2005 in Madrid. He also came third four times, in 2006 and three years in a row from 2012-14.

"This is the greatest day of my career. It means everything to me to take this victory," the 38-year-old Valverde said through an interpreter.

He became the first Spanish world champion since Oscar Freire won the title in 2004.

Valverde, who served a doping suspension earlier in his career, has won stages in all Grand Tours and was the overall winner of the Vuelta in 2009. Sunday's title came a year after he suffered a fractured kneecap in a fall in the Tour de France, forcing him to end his 2017 season prematurely.

Valverde positioned himself for the win when he went ahead of the pack together with Bardet and Woods for the final five kilometres. While the trio built a lead of a half-minute, Dumoulin managed to catch up for the last 1,500 metres.

However, the Dutchman lacked the power to attack again, and Valverde held off challenges by Bardet and Woods to cross the line first.

Peter Sagan had his three-year winning streak snapped when he quit the race with 90 kilometres left. The Slovakian sprint specialist struggled on the 258-kilometre course, which included 4,681 metres of climbing and was regarded as one of the toughest world championship courses in decades.

Many of the pre-race favourites had problems, while Warren Barguil of France and Primoz Roglic of Slovenia were among the contenders slowed by crashes.

A group of 11 riders broke away in the opening kilometres, and as there were no title favourites among them, the peloton wasn't bothered about chasing them for most of the race.

The group was allowed to build a lead of up to 19 minutes, but was gradually reduced as more and more riders couldn't keep up with its pace.

It left Kasper Asgreen of Denmark and Vegard Stake Laengen of Norway as the two leaders, but they were finally overtaken by the peloton with 20 kilometres left to go.

Several riders tried to attack, and Asgreen's Danish teammate Michael Valgren looked successful for a while as he went 30 seconds ahead. The French team, however, closed the gap in an attempt to set up Bardet, but they also helped Valverde and Woods to the front.

It ultimately enabled Valverde to claim his first word title, two years before his announced retirement after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

-- With files from The Canadian Pres s</s>INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) — For the seventh time in his career, Alejandro Valverde stepped onto the podium after the men's road race at the world championships on Sunday.

But for the first time he received the gold medal.

The Spanish rider sprinted to his first world title after a grueling, mountainous race of 6 hours, 46 minutes through the Austrian Alps, including a final climb with a maximum gradient of 28 percent.

Valverde led a group of four in the final kilometer, and he just remained ahead in the sprint, with Romain Bardet of France taking the silver. Michael Woods, the first Canadian in the top three since Steve Bauer in 1984, won the bronze, while Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands placed fourth.

The victory came 15 years after Valverde won silver in Hamilton, Canada, a feat he repeated in 2005 in Madrid. He also came third four times, in 2006 and three years in a row from 2012-14.

"This is the greatest day of my career. It means everything to me to take this victory," the 38-year-old Valverde said through an interpreter.

He became the first Spanish world champion since Oscar Freire won the title in 2004.

Valverde, who served a doping suspension earlier in his career, has won stages in all Grand Tours and was the overall winner of the Vuelta in 2009. Sunday's title came a year after he suffered a fractured kneecap in a fall in the Tour de France, forcing him to end his 2017 season prematurely.

Valverde positioned himself for the win when he went ahead of the pack together with Bardet and Woods for the final five kilometers. While the trio built a lead of a half-minute, Dumoulin managed to catch up for the last 1,500 meters.

However, the Dutchman lacked the power to attack again, and Valverde held off challenges by Bardet and Woods to cross the line first.

Peter Sagan had his three-year winning streak snapped when he quit the race with 90 kilometers left. The Slovakian sprint specialist struggled on the 258-kilometer course, which included 4,681 meters of climbing and was regarded as one of the toughest world championship courses in decades.

Many of the pre-race favorites had problems, while Warren Barguil of France and Primoz Roglic of Slovenia were among the contenders slowed by crashes.

A group of 11 riders broke away in the opening kilometers, and as there were no title favorites among them, the peloton wasn't bothered about chasing them for most of the race.

The group was allowed to build a lead of up to 19 minutes, but was gradually reduced as more and more riders couldn't keep up with its pace.

It left Kasper Asgreen of Denmark and Vegard Stake Laengen of Norway as the two leaders, but they were finally overtaken by the peloton with 20 kilometers left to go.

Several riders tried to attack, and Asgreen's Danish teammate Michael Valgren looked successful for a while as he went 30 seconds ahead. The French team, however, closed the gap in an attempt to set up Bardet, but they also helped Valverde and Woods to the front.

It ultimately enabled Valverde to claim his first word title, two years before his announced retirement after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.</s>INNSBRUCK, Austria — For the seventh time in his career, Alejandro Valverde stepped onto the podium after the men's road race at the world championships on Sunday.

But for the first time he received the gold medal.

The Spanish rider sprinted to his first world title after a grueling, mountainous race of 6 hours, 46 minutes through the Austrian Alps, including a final climb with a maximum gradient of 28 per cent.

Valverde led a group of four in the final kilometre, and he just remained ahead in the sprint, with Romain Bardet of France taking the silver. Michael Woods, the first Canadian in the top three since Steve Bauer in 1984, won the bronze, while Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands placed fourth.

The victory came 15 years after Valverde won silver in Hamilton, a feat he repeated in 2005 in Madrid. He also came third four times, in 2006 and three years in a row from 2012-14.

"This is the greatest day of my career. It means everything to me to take this victory," the 38-year-old Valverde said through an interpreter.

He became the first Spanish world champion since Oscar Freire won the title in 2004.

Valverde, who served a doping suspension earlier in his career, has won stages in all Grand Tours and was the overall winner of the Vuelta in 2009. Sunday's title came a year after he suffered a fractured kneecap in a fall in the Tour de France, forcing him to end his 2017 season prematurely.

Valverde positioned himself for the win when he went ahead of the pack together with Bardet and Woods, a 31-year-old from Ottawa, for the final five kilometres. While the trio built a lead of a half-minute, Dumoulin managed to catch up for the last 1,500 metres.

However, the Dutchman lacked the power to attack again, and Valverde held off challenges by Bardet and Woods to cross the line first.</s>Spain's Alejandro Valverde sprints to road race world title Spain's Alejandro Valverde crosses the finish line to win the men's road race at the Road Cycling World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, Sunday, Sept.30, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) -- Alejandro Valverde sprinted to gold in the men's road race at the world championships on Sunday.

The Spanish rider was the fastest of a leading group of four, with Romain Bardet of France taking the silver and Michael Woods of Canada the bronze, while Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands placed fourth.

It was Valverde's first world title, after finishing runner-up in 2003 and 2005 and coming third four times.

Defending champion Peter Sagan had his three-year winning streak snapped when he quit the race with 90 kilometers left. The Slovakian sprint specialist struggled on the 258-kilometer course, which included 4,681 meters of climbing and was regarded as one of the toughest world championship courses in decades.</s>Michael Woods has cycled his way to bronze at the Road Cycling World Championships in Innsbruck. Woods finished in third, within one second of the leading time of 6:46:41.

It was a tight finish between Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, France’s Romain Bardet and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin. Valverde crossed the finish line first. The other three finished within one second after him, with Bardet crossing second, followed by Woods.

This podium finish matches Canada’s best finish in this event, accomplished first by Steve Bauer in 1984.

Woods gained momentum when cycling uphill, advancing ahead of his opponents and to the the leading group. Three other Canadians competed in the race: Hugo Houle, Antoine Duchesne and Robert Britton.
Alejandro Valverde wins his first title after a four-man sprint, ahead of Romain Bardet and Michael Woods.