He’s won national titles on the track and road, and challenged for stage wins at the Tour de France, but there’s still one prize Fred Wright has his eye on. “It was always the Millennium Falcon,” he says when we ask him what Lego set he’s always lusted after. “To have the massive Millennium Falcon is pretty cool. But I tell myself, I’ve got to have a reason to buy it.”
Wright is one of a surprisingly large number of pro riders and coaches who are Adult Fans of Lego (AFOLs), the child’s construction toy. Perhaps even more surprisingly, there seem to be some tangible benefits to building for those whose lives are dominated by sport.
Mark Cavendish is probably in 2020: “It’s quite a mundane task… You just sit there and you do it… I think it uses the same part of your brain that’s used for meditation.”
