The 23-year-old Brit stayed with some of the world’s climbers to finish 10th on the penultimate stage of the race.
The finale of the largely flat 180km stage was the 20km climb of Jebel Jais, where Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) strengthened his grip on the leader’s red jersey, with James Knox moving up to eighth on the overall standings of the season’s third World Tour appointment.
A large crash that took down several of the race favourites dominated early proceedings and was perhaps a sign of the tension ahead of the big showdown. Luckily nobody was badly hurt and the race continued with Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal) forging a gap. He was soon joined by a group of seven riders that included Elia Viviani and Michael Mørkøv and they soon had a lead of around four minutes, with Elia scooping second and first place in the day’s intermediate sprints.
On the climb to Jebel Jais, Hansen, Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-Merida) and Joey Rosskopf (CCC) held off the peloton’s charge until the final kilometers. From there, the Jumbo-Visma team pushed hard for their leader, shed much of the field, with Dries Devenyns joining James Knox in the front group until the final stages. This left Knox in the esteemed company of a group of 20 leading riders, including Roglic, Alessandro Valverde (Movistar), Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) and Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb); several attacks were nullified, leading to a group sprint where Knox nabbed a superb 10th place.
Afterwards, James gave his thoughts on the tough stage 6: “Some of the GC teams hit the front at the bottom of the climb and they kept winding the pacer higher and higher and it was 2-3 km to go when it really started to hot up. I was honestly expecting more from the climb – there were reports of the gradients going up to 7% or 9%, but it was really consistent all the way up and the large group meant that I managed to shelter in the wheels and I could hang in. I started sprinting a little too early and didn’t lose too much time, so overall, I am really happy with my ride. To be with those top guys is a big boost for me and already it`s looking better than last year and I can keep building on this eighth place in the GC.”
Photo credit: ©Justin Setterfield/ Getty Images
