The 24-year-old missed out on a maiden Grand Tour top 10 for just a couple of seconds, despite a superb effort.
Battered, bruised and heavily bandaged after hitting the floor on the roads to Toledo, James Knox started the penultimate stage of the race knowing it was going to be a complicated day, one of suffering over the six classified climbs that promised – with the help of some nagging rain – to shuffle the deck again, twenty-four hours before Madrid: Puerto de Petro Bernardo, Puerto de Serranillos, Alto de Navatalgordo, Puerto de Chia, Puerto de Peña Negra, and Plataforma de Gredos.
Despite the fatigue of the last three weeks and the prospect of a leg-sapping day in one of Spain’s biggest provinces, it all kicked off in the peloton on the slopes of the first ascent, where several teams showed their intentions and went on the rampage, stringing out the bunch. Among those suffering following this brisk start of affairs was also James Knox, who began dangling at the back on Serranillos, the climb made famous by Bernard Hinault back in 1983, but pushed on helped by the amazing and brilliant Wolfpack, who rallied around him and paced the Cumbrian as he returned to the group.
Under a dark, murky sky, the elastic finally snapped on Puerto de Chia, where a brutal acceleration of the GC teams left around 25 riders in the reduced peloton, and many others struggling. Knox had several of his teammates to look for him, including Zdenek Stybar, one of the race’s unsung heroes, and roommate Philippe Gilbert, and kept battling on admirably and ignoring the pain on the remaining climbs despite the gradient that began to bite which each pedal and ferocious headwind.
The 2012 World Champion displayed his class as he continued to sacrifice himself and accompanied James – whose sheer grit and incredible gutsy ride earned him an entire legion of fans and huge respect – all the way to the finish, where he arrived with a deficit of over eleven minutes, which unfortunately put him out of the top 10 overall for a mere and painful 21 seconds. Despite this cruel setback, his odyssey over the past three weeks hasn’t been anything short of remarkable, as James kept hitting new heights, be it on the mountains or in the crosswinds, and took a lot of heart from the huge leap forward he has made in just his second pro season with Deceuninck – Quick-Step.
“I can’t really put into words what it means to have Philippe and Zdenek pushing me on all the way to today’s finish line. I never suffered so much on a bike before and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it to the end of the day without my wonderful teammates. I’m emotionally and physically drained now and I am looking forward to finally reaching Madrid on Sunday”, an exhausted and emotional James Knox said before jumping onto the bus.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images
