Fred Wright powered to an impressive second place on Stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, after a challenging 204.6km from Prémilhat to Issoire — the same town where teammate Pello Bilbao won a Tour de France stage in 2023.
The day featured over 2,800 metres of climbing, making it a taxing effort for the pure sprinters. Despite the undulating profile and relentless pace, Wright held firm throughout, positioning himself perfectly for the finale.
After trying to ignite a move with 37km to go on Stage 1, Wright showed smart positioning and strong legs today, locking onto the wheel of former teammate Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in the final run-in. Robert Stannard played a vital role in the closing kilometres, expertly delivering Fred onto Milan’s wheel, allowing the Brit to launch his sprint and secure a well-earned second place behind one of the WorldTour’s most dominant sprinters.
“I knew there was one wheel to pick on that kind of bunch sprint. Having been teammates with Jonny, I know he’s got something quite special in terms of sprinting. Rob put me perfectly on his wheel, but unfortunately not much more I could have done to be honest, but yeah, second — I am really happy with it. We rode really well today, I think. We kept the GC boys in front and then, yeah, to get a result in a sprint like that, I’ll take it – I’m happy with that.
It was hot and pretty lumpy all day, that’s where I knew I had a bit of motivation going into a sprint like that, because the real fast boys can lose a bit of their kick and I tend to keep mine when it’s still quite hard.
I said to Rob, there is going to be a pause into the last km because it sort of drags over the bridge — stick me on Jonny’s wheel.”
Discussing another opportunity tomorrow, Fred added:
“To be honest I think looking at the start tomorrow, it might be quite a big fight for the breakaway. You saw today people getting quite excited, trying little moves here and there. Lidl-Trek will try and control, but the start is solid, so we could have a breakaway day — so maybe I’ll mix in with that as well.”
