'It's like an out of body experience' – Fred Wright on his Montmartre attack at the Tour de France

For a brief moment, the dream was alive. On the final time up the Côte de la Butte Montmartre on stage 21 of the Tour de France, British champion Fred Wright attacked, and was off the front of the bike race.

The Pinarello Q36.5 rider lit the race up on the cobbles through, until his move was shut down by yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and former world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech). The 27-year-old kicked off what would become the winning move of the stage, as Van der Poel held on for victory on the Champs-Élysées.

"The adrenaline got me through," Wright said after the finish, where he finished 25th.

"My hand is so sore. It's really sore now, it's hitting me. It was a nice way to end the Tour. I was floating nicely on Bini's wheel but with the headwind I just got a bit blocked."

"I was dying a bit, I got a bit excited," Wright continued. "I saw a yellow bike on my inside, I thought it was Pogi but it was Florian [Vermeersch]. Maybe it was a bit foolish, but at least I was at the front end of the bike race. If you don't try you never know.

"It's really special. I feel a bit sick to be honest, I got through that on a lot of mental energy rather than physical today. My brain is all over the place."

Shown the pictures on TNT Sports in the UK after the finish, Wright said: "That's pretty cool. It's just a shame I had that crash a few days ago, that would have given me a bit of energy. In 20 minutes I'm going to forget it all, have a beer and a pizza, and love the fact I was on the front on Montmartre.

"It's like an out of body experience. Tom [Pidcock] asked me in the race how I was, and I said I don't know. I'm not going to forget that for a long time."

"I was so gutted on stage 17 because I had a crash and the break had gone at that point. To be able to race at the front today was a pleasure. I wanted to do that more this Tour. First Tour for this team, we can be really happy with it [Pinarello Q36.5 finished their maiden Tour de Tour with Pidcock in 9th]."