Fred Wright has been knocking on a big win for the past two seasons – he’s always present at the front of the toughest Classics, whether that is fighting for his own result or supporting the likes of Matej Mohorič. After his seventh place finish at the Tour of Flanders last year, the British rider is hoping to go even better in 2023. His form has been building solidly in races like E3 Saxo Bank, Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, and he’s currently in the Bahrain-Victorious team house preparing for the big one on Sunday. He spoke to Rouleur to give an inside look into the how the week as gone so far and what he’s expecting from De Ronde.
After Dwars door Vlaanderen yesterday, I’m a little bit tired but not too bad. I’ve just finished watching the latest episode of the Mandalorian, there’s also pool table and table football in the villa where our team is staying, so there’s plenty of options here for stuff to do, but today was more about just relaxing and having a nap. We’ve been playing quite a lot of cards and we have a full scoreboard, I managed to win last night which was a good consolation prize after the race.
I was potentially going to do recon of the Tour of Flanders today, but I looked back to last year and I didn’t do one then. I just did easy rides, so I’m going to do the same thing this year – I think the best thing to do is just rest up. Kortrijk is only about 15km away from where we are staying so today we jumped on the canal and rode there to have a coffee and it was lovely. It looked like I made the right decision not to do the recon because from what the guys are saying, Matej was absolutely smashing it, I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed that.
We have a chef here too, so it’s always nice food after the races. It’s different from last year as we have a nutritionist helping with carb quantities. It gets a bit dull always measuring how many carbs you’re eating but it does make a difference for the races because you can overeat in some of these periods and also under eat, so it’s getting that nailed. Last night it was quite simple, pasta with tomato sauce, then some kebabs afterwards and a little brownie to finish.
I think having this shared house keeps things fresh for this period, I’m glad I don’t just have to spend these days in a hotel room, that could get a bit demoralising. Having a house where you can sit in a communal space is so much better. We always end up watching previous editions of…