"We should have caught him" - Fred Wright disappointed as he faced resistance to stage win and race lead by 2 seconds at Vuelta

Fred Wright has been close to a big win for a while, and today at the Vuelta a Espana he found himself close once again. However, with ambition of both win and race lead, he found tough competition which took both.

"In my mind, it was really the stage victory that I wanted. That's why I rode so much today," Wright said in a post-race interview. He had found himself in the right move and within the shot of the red jersey. He found tough competition in Groupama - FDJ however, who rode for the same objective. Wright found himself having to fight with Rudy Molard over the final climb and descent, unable to drop the Frenchman and without receiving collaboration.

I thought we could take over Marc Soler. Congratulations to him, he was super strong. I felt good on the climb but not enough to take it back," he described. Wright wanted to go for the stage win but also to the race lead. He ended up not having any as there was no collaboration in the chasing group after the climb and Marc Soler rode to the stage win.

"I thought maybe we could go downhill," Wright pointed out "Unfortunately not. I know I have a good sprint, I launched from afar! Third and white jersey, it's not what I wanted, but I can be happy". He managed to take four seconds of bonus at the finish, but due to the time Molard took on the summit of the final climb, the classification tilted his way.

"I'm a little disappointed but at least I'm rewarded with a nice shirt. A leader's jersey on a Grand Tour is special, so I'm happy with this white jersey," he said. Nevertheless, Wright has leaped onto the lead of the youth classification, and sits only two seconds away from the red jersey - giving him a chance to still attack it in the next few days after showing strong form.