As the Tour de France hit Switzerland for stage 8, the race looked set to calm down a little after three days in a row of GC to-and-fro in the cobbles, hills and mountains.
The 186km transitional voyage across the border to Lausanne looked all set to deliver the second success of the race for the breakaway men, though on the road through the Jura only three men jumped away from the peloton.
Bahrain Victorious rider Fred Wright, in the midst of his second Tour de France, was out there, accompanied on what would ultimately be a fruitless ride by Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), and Frederik Frison (Lotto Soudal).
The 23-year-old Briton was the last man standing from the move, with Frison dropping with some 60km to run and Cattaneo giving up the ghost 8km out. Wright battled on valiantly, however, staying out alone until the final climb to the finish, 3km from the line.
“I kind of had already looked at this stage the other day to try and have a go,” Wright told assembled journalists shortly past the finish line in Lausanne. “So, in my head you get psyched up for it and I was like ‘right, I’m going to try and get the break’.
“Then there were only three of us. I thought people were going to come across and they didn’t, but I thought ‘I’ve laid my bed or whatever, so I’m going to commit to this’ and we played it quite well.
Wright – who turned to his soigneur after the interview to say it was “an absolute pisstake” that he missed the combativity prize on the stage as the last man standing from the break – said that he was happy he made it to the final climb before being caught and was equally glad he wasn’t caught at a more tantalising point in the final, as Lennard Kämna was on Friday.
“We sort of relaxed at one point but then proper drilled it to get a bit more time,” he said. “I kept believing but it wasn’t to be. I was happy I lasted until the foot of the climb though. I thought I’d get there and give it a go and see what happens.
“I was thinking with 5km to go I hope this isn’t one of them with 500 metres to go things, but luckily they get me a bit sooner.”
With Bahrain leader Jack Haig out of the race following his crash on the cobbled stage 5, the team will now look to support Damiano Caruso, who lies 17th in GC at 3:37 in arrears on yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar.
However, that doesn’t mean that the likes of Wright, Dylan Teuns, and Matej Mohorič aren’t free to take their chances when they can – as the latter duo have to great effect at the Tour…
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