Fred Wright: Imagine if I don't win my first Grand Tour stage for another 10 years?

If social media really did show the homogenous views of society, and what the people wanted is what the people got, then Fred Wright would be winning stages of Grand Tours every single day.

But, unfortunately, what the people want isn't necessarily what the people get, and despite his best efforts first at the Tour de France and latterly at the Vuelta a España, Wright's palmarès remains devoid of a Grand Tour win.

The clamour for him to win his maiden stage in a three-week race is enormous.

At just 23, Wright has endeared himself to the cycling public with his likeable, happy outlook and honest interviews, constantly showing emotion and expressing his feelings.

All the people want is for the Londoner to win, and it looked like he could have done on stage five of the Vuelta, only for Marc Soler to beat the chasing pack.

It left Wright once again disappointed but not disheartened, the Bahrain-Victorious telling Cycling Weekly the morning after that he is well aware of both the public affection for him and their desire for him to triumph

"Maybe that means it's gonna be even better when it does happens," he wondered. "Even it happens in five, 10 years.

"Imagine if I win my first Grand Tour stage in 10 years? The build-up is going to be crazy. I hope it's a lot sooner than that but you never know, do you?"

Wright finished third on stage five and missed out on the red jersey by two seconds, Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ superseding Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma at the leader of the race.

Yet Wright never really had intentions of becoming the race leader, instead just wanting to break his stage duck.

"I think the more you want it, the harder it gets," he added. "I think that's what was affecting me a bit yesterday.

"I was getting frustrated with Molard, but of course he was going to do that; he wanted the red jersey. He was always going to follow me. But I didn't accept that and I probably needed to be like, 'OK, he's gonna follow me, what do I do about it?'

"In my head it was all about winning the stage. People have asked me if I knew that there were bonus seconds over the top of the climb, and I did know that, but I thought we would catch Soler and I thought I would be able to mix in an attack to win the stage. That was all that was on my mind."

Ever the optimist, Wright - resplendent in the white jersey as the leader of the young classification - didn't cut a frustrated figure, but more one of a man who is impatient for his time to come. "I keep saying that I am showing myself again in another big bike race so it's pretty special," he added. "It's all good. It's all good!"