After a breakthrough 2022 what's next for Fred Wright?

Bahrain - Victorious' 23-year-old Brit, Fred Wright enjoyed the best season of his career to date in 2022. A top 10 finish at the Tour des Flanders and a prominent figure at both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana, Wright has now cast his eye to the future and 2023.

Speaking to Cyclingnews, Wright discussed his goals for next season "First there's Flanders and Roubaix and building up to them. Then hopefully the Tour after that. That's what I want to do but obviously, we'll talk about what the best plan is," he said. "Obviously, the World Championships are coming in Glasgow soon after the Tour. I think it's good timing, I don't know. I'd basically be looking to come out of the Tour like I did this year and then go into the Worlds. It'd be a big goal as well, especially being in Scotland."

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When reminiscing about the personal highlights of his breakthrough campaign, Wright said he believed his impressive performance in Flanders was the catalyst for it all "the confidence I got from Flanders I think sort of took me through going to every sort of race being like, 'OK, I was seventh in Flanders – it's nothing to be sniffed at'. So, I kind of took that on for the rest of the season."

One of the things Wright didn't quite manage to add to his palmares was of course a Grand Tour stage win. "You kind of look back and go 'Maybe I could have done this.' I think the only time was stage 7 of the Vuelta. It was a sort of group sprint of five, six of us. I know what I did wrong – that was the one that probably should have been a win, maybe and wasn't," Wright laments, before adding "but I'm good at absorbing information, absorbing it from all these experiences. At some point that's going to translate into something big, I hope."

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One of an ever-growing number of British riders in the peloton, Wright seems to think the future is bright for the next generation "There are lots of kids that will see me, Ethan (Hayter), and Leo (Hayter), and that'll be what inspires them. For us, it was the case of the 2012 Olympics and that sort of era with Wiggins and Cavendish. That's what got us to get involved." he says. "It's great to have so many young British guys coming through. Teams see the success of young British guys and now they're more invested in young British guys, so it's only going to get bigger."