Tour of Flanders 2023: Fred Wright and his quest to prove he belongs at the front with Mathieu van der Poel

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) is hoping he won’t be “hanging on for dear life” again when he bids for a maiden Classics victory at the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. Wright will start as an outsider on the Flemish cobbles with a host of big names on the start list, but is hoping to build on his seventh-place finish in 2022.

Ad The 23-year-old earned a legion of new fans with a spree of daring attacks and emotive post-race interviews in his breakout season last year. He came within a whisker of a maiden Grand Tour victory, finishing in the top five on five occasions at La Vuelta, just a month after lighting up the Tour de France.

Tour of BritainGreipel claims second win in four days at the Tour of Britain05/09/2018 AT 15:41 Although his first two outings in Flanders were underwhelming – a DNF in 2020, 112th in 2021 – he was part of a five-strong front group containing eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Deceuninck) last year until fading late on, to hint he is starting to master the cobbles. “In my first year at Flanders I was at the foot of the Koppenberg and I was like ‘nope, I’m out of the race!’ I went back to the bus, that was me done,” Wright recalled to the Eurosport GCN Cycling Show, available to watch on April 4 at 17:30 BST on Eurosport 1 and discovery+.

“And then years later I was in the first two guys onto the Koppenberg, so that’s already an improvement. I’ve built on the base from last year so I like to think my legs won’t be falling off quite as much as they did last year in the last time up the Kwaremont and the Paterberg.” Tour of Flanders 2023: Key info ahead of Van der Poel v Van Aert 'Belgium should pay more attention to its stars' — Zeeman slams critics of Van Aert and Laporte The