Fred Wright (cyclist)
.jpg) Wright, Gent. Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2023. | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alfred Brockwell Wright | ||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Fred | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 13 June 1999 London, England | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 75 kg (165 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||
| Current team | Team Bahrain Victorious | ||||||||||||||
| Disciplines |
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| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Classics specialist, Rouleur, breakaway specialist, domestique[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Amateur teams | |||||||||||||||
| 2018–2019 | 100% Me | ||||||||||||||
| 2019 | CCC Team (stagiaire) | ||||||||||||||
| Professional team | |||||||||||||||
| 2020– | Bahrain–McLaren[2] | ||||||||||||||
| Major wins | |||||||||||||||
| One-day races and Classics | |||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Alfred Brockwell Wright (born 13 June 1999) is a British racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious.[3]
Career
[edit]Originally from south east London, Wright moved to Manchester at the age of 18 to join the British Cycling Senior Academy, with a focus on the track.[1] In August 2019, Wright joined UCI WorldTeam CCC Team as a stagiaire for the second half of the season.[4]
In November 2019 it was announced that Wright was joining the Bahrain–Merida team, later renamed as Bahrain–McLaren for the 2020 season.[2] He was recruited to the team by Rod Ellingworth, the outfit's general manager, who had previously worked for the British Cycling Senior Academy.[1] In April 2020 Wright won stage four of the Giro d'Italia Virtual, held during the Covid-19 crisis that stopped outdoor cycling races. In October 2020, he was named in the startlist for the 2020 Vuelta a España.[5] At the Vuelta he placed fourth on the fifteenth stage of the race.[1]
2022
[edit]2022 was a breakthrough season for Wright as he took a top-10 at the Tour of Flanders from the breakaway. At the Tour de France Wright was again an active breakaway rider, recording two top-10s from the break including a 2nd place, and then in the penultimate stage's 40.7 km individual time trial, Wright managed 8th place. At the Commonwealth Games a few weeks after the end of the Tour de France, Wright won a Silver medal in the individual time trial event, behind Rohan Dennis, but beating a pre-race favourite, Geraint Thomas. Cyclingnews.com commented on Wright's 2022 season that "[t]he Vuelta a España was confirmation that Wright seems to be getting better and better this summer, bothering the top reaches of the results sheets in breakaways and bunch sprints", and tipped him as a contender for the World Championships road race for 2022.[6]
2022 Vuelta and controversy
[edit]At the 2022 Vuelta a España, Wright scored, via sprint finishes and breakaways, seven top-10 stage results, including three top-3 results, but didn't manage to win a stage. During the race he was the subject of controversy: during the closing kilometres of Stage 16, a small group of four, including Wright, followed Primož Roglič, then placed second in the General Classification, as he attacked out of the peloton. As the lead quintet sprinted for the win, Roglič collided with Wright, causing the former to crash heavily while the latter was able to stay upright. Roglič crossed the line with several cuts on his right side.[7] Two days later, Roglič issued a statement via his team: “My conclusion is that the way this crash happened is unacceptable. Not everyone saw it correctly. The crash was not caused by a bad road or a lack of safety but by a rider's behaviour. I don't have eyes on my back. Otherwise, I would have run wide. Wright came from behind and rode the handlebars out of my hands before I knew it."[8] This statement was criticised by other riders and teams.[9] Roglič's fellow Slovene Matej Mohorič defended Wright, saying "It's not appropriate and it's not fair to make a statement like that toward Fred [...] I think if you ask the peloton, everyone will tell you that Primož is more eager to push for position than Fred. We know that Primož crashes a lot and this is not the first time this happened."[10]
2023
[edit]On 25 June 2023, Wright earned his first professional victory, winning the elite men's race at the British National Road Race Championships,[11] three days after a silver medal in the elite men's time trial.[12]
Personal life
[edit]His father is actor Philip Wright.[13] As of 2021, Wright lived in Manchester, sharing a house with fellow racing cyclist Ethan Hayter.[1]
Major results
[edit]Road
[edit]- 2016
- 1st
Overall Junior Tour of Wales - 5th Overall Trofeo Karlsberg
- 1st
Young rider classification
- 1st
- 2017
- 3rd Overall Junior Tour of Wales
- 1st
Mountains classification
- 1st
- 2018
- 2nd Road race, National Under-23 Championships
- 2nd Overall Ronde de l'Oise
- 1st Young rider classification
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st
- 5th Road race, National Championships
- 7th Overall Paris–Arras Tour
- 2019
- 1st Stage 4 Tour de l'Avenir
- 1st Stage 7 Giro Ciclistico d'Italia
- 3rd Overall Paris–Arras Tour
- 5th Time trial, National Under-23 Championships
- 2021
- 1st
Road race, National Under-23 Championships - National Championships
- 2nd Road race
- 4th Time trial
- 10th Eschborn–Frankfurt
- 2022
- Commonwealth Games
- 2nd
Time trial - 5th Road race
- 2nd
- 7th Tour of Flanders
- Vuelta a España
- Held after Stage 5
- Held
- 2023 (1 pro win)
- National Championships
- 1st Road race
- 2nd Time trial
- 1st
- 8th Tour of Flanders
- 2024
- 3rd Overall CRO Race
Grand Tour general classification results timeline
[edit]| Grand Tour | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | — |
 Tour de France | — | 96 | 55 | 92 | DNF |
 Vuelta a España | 91 | — | 67 | — |
Monuments results timeline
[edit]| Monument | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milan–San Remo | — | 148 | — | 79 | 30 |
| Tour of Flanders | DNF | 112 | 7 | 8 | 50 |
| Paris–Roubaix | NH | 51 | 99 | DNF | 12 |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | — | — | — | — | — |
| Giro di Lombardia | — | — | — | — |
| — | Did not compete |
|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |
Track
[edit]- 2015
- 1st Madison, National Junior Championships (with Ethan Hayter)
- 2016
- 1st
Team pursuit, UEC European Junior Championships - 3rd Madison, National Championships (with Jake Stewart)
- 3rd Madison, National Junior Championships (with Ethan Hayter)
- 2017
- UEC European Junior Championships
- 1st Omnium
- 2nd
Team pursuit
- 1st
- 1st Junior Six Days of Berlin (with Jake Stewart)
- National Junior Championships
- 2nd Individual pursuit
- 2nd Madison (with Jacob Vaughan)
- 2nd Points race
- 2018
- 1st Team pursuit, UEC European Under-23 Championships
- National Championships
- 1st Madison (with Matt Walls)
- 1st Team pursuit
- 3rd Points race
- 1st
- UCI World Cup
- 2nd Madison, London (with Matt Walls)
- 3rd Team pursuit, London
- 2019
- 1st Madison, UEC European Under-23 Championships (with Matt Walls)
- National Championships
- 1st Madison (with Rhys Britton)
- 2nd Omnium
- 2nd Team pursuit
- 1st
- 3rd Madison, UCI World Cup, Hong Kong (with Mark Stewart)
- 2020
- 2nd Omnium, National Championships
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Jary, Rachel (7 May 2021). ""This is a really cool job" Bahrain Victorious' Fred Wright on his first Grand Tour". Rouleur. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ a b Ostanek, Daniel (26 December 2019). "2020 Team Preview: Bahrain McLaren". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ^ "Bahrain Victorious". UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "CCC Team". UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
- ^ "75th La Vuelta ciclista a España: Startlist". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
- ^ "2022 UCI Road World Championships – 10 riders to watch in the elite men's road race". cyclingnews.com. 22 September 2022.
- ^ Friend, Luke (6 September 2022). "Vuelta a España 2022: Mads Pedersen wins stage 16 as Primož Roglič crashes as he contests the sprint finish". CyclingWeekly. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
- ^ "Primoz Roglic blames Fred Wright for causing 'unacceptable' crash at La Vuelta Espana 2022". Eurosport UK. 9 September 2022.
- ^ "Primož Roglič and Jumbo-Visma release much-criticised statement blaming Fred Wright for Vuelta crash". road.cc. 10 September 2022.
- ^ "Mohoric defends teammate Fred Wright after Roglic crash accusations". cyclingnews.com. 11 September 2022.
- ^ "British National Road Championships: Fred Wright pays tribute to Gino Mader". BBC Sport. 25 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
- ^ "British National Road Championships: Tarling becomes youngest time trial champion". BBC Sport. 22 June 2023. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
- ^ "Fred Wright". www.teamgb.com. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
External links
[edit]
- Fred Wright at British Cycling
- Fred Wright at UCI
- Fred Wright at ProCyclingStats
- Fred Wright at Team GB
- Fred Wright at Team England
- Fred Wright at Olympics.com
- Fred Wright at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics
- Fred Wright at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
