Michael Wright (cyclist)

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Michael Wright
Personal information
Full name Michael Wright
Date of birth March 25, 1941 (1941-03-25) (age 66)
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Team information
Current team Retired
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Professional team(s)
1962-1966
1967
1968-1971
1972-1973
1974
1975
1976		 Wiel's-Groene Leeuw
Tibetan-Groene Leeuw-Pull Over Centrale
Bic
Gitane
Sonolor-Gitane
Gero-Jaga Kercka
Ijsboerke-Colnago
Major wins
3 stage wins, Tour de France
4 stage wins, Vuelta a España
Infobox last updated on:
March 28, 2007

Michael Wright - "Michel" - (born 25 March 1941) is an English former professional road bicycle racer from 1962 to 1976. He won stages in the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España stage races and represented Great Britain at several world championships.

Contents

Wright was born in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. His father died in World War II and his mother re-married to a Belgian soldier. The family emigrated to Belgium when Wright was only three. He grew up in Liège.

Wright's first sport was football. However, when his step-father died leaving the family short of money, Wright turned to cycling as a more lucrative way of exploiting his athletic talent.

His first language was French and, although he represented Great Britain at the Tour de France and several World road race championships,his English was limited. During the winter of 1967-8 he took evening classes to brush up his English in preparation for riding with the British team. In 2006, he told Procycling that his English is poor.

He told Procycling that he profited from his British nationality because he was never good enough to ride in a Belgian national team. Being British gave him rides in world championships and, in 1967 and 1968, in the Tour de France (held in those years for national teams). He rode with a small Union Jack sewn to the sleeves of his jerseys.

When he stopped racing, he worked as a salesman for the IJsboerke ice-cream company, which briefly had a professional team of its own.

Wright was too big to ride well in the high mountains, but he was a fast finisher from a small group.

Wright rode the Tour de France eight times, finishing 24th in 1965 and winning three stages. Together with Barry Hoban, Wright provided Great Britain with its most consistent period of Tour stage wins during the late sixties and early seventies. He was a member of the British team in 1967 - the year that Tommy Simpson collapsed and died on Mont Ventoux.

Tour record:

Wright won 4 stages of the Vuelta a España: 2 in 1968 and 2 in 1969. In 1968 he was third in the points classification. In 1969 he came 5th on general classification, 2nd on the points classification and wore the leader's jersey for 2 days.

Stage wins:

1961 - amateur

  • 21 wins

1962 - first professional year

  • 1st Grand Prix du Brabant Wallon

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1972

1973

1974

1975

  • 2nd Circuit de Wallonie

1976

  • 1st Circuit de Niel

Fotheringham, W. (2005), Roule Britannia: A History of Britons in the Tour de France, London: Yellow Jersey, ISBN 0-224-07425-3

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wright_%28cyclist%29"
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