Fred Wright: Tour diary

Searching for the perfect break

STAGE 17

WORST CLIMB IN THE WORLD

After the first climb of the day I went back for bottles for the guys still in the peloton and rode right to the front, and to my surprise both Pello Bilbao and Jack Haig weren't there. Turned out they'd made the break of 30 guys. I did think the bunch looked small. Once again a perfect start to the stage for us, I thought I could go easy to the finish.

With the Col de la Loze, it turned out it wouldn't be so easy. Having done it in the Tour de l'Avenir I knew what was coming, but man is that one of the worst climbs in the world. Just for the gruppetto to get up there it felt like we were going as hard as we could. Lots of unhappy faces around me.

STAGE 18

MISSED MOMENT

This was meant to be a sprint, but I was hoping for some attacks as Jasper Philipsen has been so dominant so far. Unfortunately no one was as optimistic in the start only three guys went.

The gap stayed close at around a minute for the whole stage, Alpecin-Deceuninck knew they were still three strong guys. There were still some climbs with around 60km to go and it seemed Lotto-Dstny were keen today and a few guys started attacking. I countered over the top of the cat-four and got a gap, the break was only 35 seconds away. I turned around and saw Alpecin chasing and doubted my chances and sat up.

Oh, what could have been. I definitely had the legs in the moment to bridge to the front, but it didn't seem worth it. Everyone was convinced we could catch them. Turned out everyone was wrong.

Today was the first day of the Tour that I finished pretty disappointed. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it really felt like today was the first day I could have had a shot at a stage. Up until this point I didn't think I could have done anything more, but today there was an actual chance. That's bike racing.