The 23-year-old Brit calls it a race after 12 stages.
Due to an injury that he sustained after his accident in stage 4 (Orbetello – Frascati), Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s medical staff have decided that Grand Tour debutant James Knox should stop the Giro d’Italia, as the injury he picked up last Tuesday isn’t healing as expected and the team don’t want to risk incurring further injury.
“I have been struggling with this knee injury, but we were still hoping I could make some kind of recovery on the flat stages and the rest day; unfortunately, today was the first real test on the climbs, and taking into account how I felt and what’s still to come, we decided to call it a race”, James explained.
“Despite this, it’s been really great to be here, part of the team, and to live this experience. I am of course pretty disappointed, as the crashes on stage 3 and 4 ruined the fun for me and put me on survival mode, but I hope to return to the Giro d’Italia in the near future, because it’s such a great race.”
In the next days, James will go for a precautionary MRI scan in Belgium to make sure there will be no further complications, following which a decision on his program for the second part of the season will be taken.
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