THE WRIGHT STUFF

What do you do when life throws you a lemon in the form of an abrupt halt to your first WorldTour season? If you’re Fred Wright you make lemonade, come out of lockdown even faster and more ready than ever to get stuck in

- James Shrubsall

Lockdown has been tough for many of us, not least professional cyclists who, for long weeks, were aimlessly treading water, constantly scanning the horizon for a rescue boat in the form of reinstated competition.

Thus, any rider who has lost a bit of form gained a bit of timber, could be forgiven, especially if like Fred Wright, they have had their maiden year in the top flight cut off at the knees just as it was getting going.

But pro riders are a different breed. While the rest of us were slowly being dragged into a black hole of multi-pack crisps and fast-emptying biscuit tins, ready to meet with a singularity of softbound hyperglycaemic catatonia, the pros were simply getting the hell on with it. And despite his brand new status as a fully signed up member of the WorldTour, Wright is no different. The Bahrain-McLaren rider is supermotivated, going better than he was before lockdown, and absolutely buzzing to get racing again.

“My training hasn’t really taken too much of a hit – I’m actually feeling fairly confident I think,” says the 21-year-old, who is just in from a big ride into the hills from the Manchester house he shares with fellow riders Ethan Hayter and Matt Walls.

“I’ve maintained the form I had and I can almost see myself starting the season off in better shape than I started the first part of this season. I think I’ll be in better shape, having had three months of quite a solid training block which you often don’t have .

Sharing digs with two more of the country’s top young riders probably helps, and the three have helped keep each other on the straight and narrow, says Wright, offering motivation and ready-made training buddies should motivation wane.