The incident took place inside the closing kilometer, when the 23-year-old Brit was in the mix for a solid stage result.
Twenty-four hours after being given the slip by the breakaway, the peloton showed that they learned from that mistake and consequently made sure of keeping the stage 3 escapees on a tight two-minute leash, before reeling them in on the final ranked climb of the day. Surprisingly, no attacks came there, but an injection of pace saw the peloton get reduced to around 40 riders, who arrived together in the last kilometer, an uphill one averaging 5.8%.
Numerous riders began jostling for position and inevitably a crash occurred on the penultimate bend, among those to hit the deck being also James Knox, who was well-placed at the front. Fortunately, the young Brit wasn’t injured and tried to immediately remount, but conceded more than half a minute to the main group by the time he arrived at the finish, dropping from the top ten overall. Ahead of the last two stages, Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s rider sits in 19th place, but despite this setback, he remains upbeat.
“With 700 meters to go we had a tight left-hand corner and this led to a big squeeze on the inside. Brambilla and Colbrelli came together ahead of me. There was nowhere to go and I took a little tumble; I escaped unscathed, but had to get my chain back and lost significant time there”, James explained after the finish in Romont, where the peloton returned after eight years.
“I have been feeling good and was hoping to defend my GC position ahead of the two important days coming up, so I am disappointed to lose out, but there’s still an opportunity to do something in the race and I look to stage 4 with confidence”, concluded the 23-year-old, who will be hoping his luck will change on Saturday’s Romandie summit finish atop Torgon.
Photo credit: ©Justin Setterfield/ Getty Images
