SOPHIE MADE OF WRIGHT STUFF

FOR much of yesterday’s Women’s Road Race, Great Britain’s Sophie Wright was in dreamland. It might not have ended with the podium finish she was hoping for, but the day was still one to remember for the 19-year-old. Wright, who has twice undergone heart surgery in the past few years, took an unexpected lead in the second lap and incredibly held on to it for almost half of the nine-lap 130km event around Glasgow. She was eventually dragged back into the peloton featuring some of the best riders in the world before finishing 57th. But the English teenager said afterwards: ‘I absolutely loved it. This is one of the best road races I’ve ever done. All the support round the course, random strangers screaming my name, it was incredible. I was going up the hills smiling. ‘GB were dominating from the start and a few of our riders did attack but on the second lap I thought: “It’s my turn.” ‘A group of five of us got away and I thought: “We’ve got over a minute’s gap, if we work together we can make this work”, but a couple of the girls just kind of stopped working, so I thought: “I’m going on my own”. ‘I definitely surprised myself that I was able to hold on to the lead for so long. I had the world champion (Dutch rider Chantal Blaak) stuck into the peloton chasing behind me for a while, and I just had to get my head down, commit to it, and see how long I could last.’ The race was eventually won by Italy’s Marta Bastianelli in a time of 3:28.15, with Dutch great Marianne Vos losing out in a sprint finish to take silver. ‘It was a very hard race today,’ said the Italian. ‘From start to finish, it was incredible. The final three laps passed so quickly. ‘Coming towards the finish, I could see the top three riders and I thought the race was over, that was it. But then in the sprint, I just went for it.’