THE WRIGHT STUFF

 

Can the new British road race champion Fred Wright now make Tour headlines?

“I’d like to win a stage of the Tour,” said Wright, after winning the British title in Cleveland last Sunday, his first ever pro win!

The 24-year-old powered away from his breakaway companions in the final kilometres for a decisive victory.

And crossing the line,  raised his arm in salute to the late Gino Madèr, his Bahrein – Victorious teammate who was killed after crashing in the Tour du Suisse recently.

So why should Wright not win stage of Le Tour, which starts from Bilbao in the Basque Country on Saturday?  He’ll surely be given his chance by his team, which rides in support of their GC hopeful, Mikel Landa.

Wright is listed as a “puncheur” – a rider who can stay away over rolling terrain, take short steep climbs in his stride. As he has often demonstrated in daring breakaways.

Afterall the six-foot Londoner showed his potential in taking 4^th on a stage of the 2020 Vuelta.

In last year’s Tour de France he twice made the top 10 on stages, including a second place and 8^th in the penultimate trial.

He’s also finished inside the top 10 in the two last editions of the Tour des Flandres. So he’s in the ball park.

In 2022 Wright was 7^th in F1anders, only 11 seconds behind winner Mathieu Van Per Poel. This year he was 8^th, in a small elite group 1-12 behind winner Tadej Pogacar.

Here is a rider we have seen so many times getting in the day’s big break, only for the peloton to claw them back. Undeterred, he looks to escape again and again in the big races.

The question is will taking the British title lift him to the next level.

The answer is surely, YES.

Now he knows all that suffering can lead to victory.  Whereas before it was a dream.

His time will come.

*I had no commentary and only sketchy on-screen information during the men’s championship shown on the Discovery Channel watched on my laptop.

So it was difficult to figure out which group was which. I guessed it was the lead group simply because Wright was in it and they were all riding full on, whereas other groups didn’t display quite the same drive.

Very occasionally, the graphics showed kilometres to go. But mostly viewers were left guessing as to who was in front and the order of the chase behind.

But the top left of the screen did display the logo of British Cycling!

Didn’t see any road signage depicting distance to go, either.

At one point a motorcyclist flew past in the opposite direction to the race – so much for security!

As luck would have it, Wright’s group avoided a brush with death because they were riding

 on the left of the road at the time. Didn’t see much of the police escort. Was there one?

All very confusing.