Cycling Weekly

IT’S FINALLY OVER

- JAMES KNOX - GIRO COLUMN James Knox rode the Giro d’italia with Deceuninck-quick Step

Three gruelling weeks, 3,449.6km and more than 47,000m climbed, and now, as I write this, there’s only 30.3km left until the 2021 Giro d’italia will be finished. From my perspectiv­e the final day is a little bit of an anticlimax, just a case of getting it done before the celebratio­ns can begin. Yet for the top riders it’s one last test to find where they can finish, 30km is not an easy time trial either, more than enough for big gaps to be found. For us we hope that João Almeida can continue his progressio­n up the GC, and of course that the TGV of Clermont Ferrand [Remi Cavagna] will be able to take the top spot. [Cavagna would go on to finish second in the final time trial while Almeida moved up two places on GC]

There’s no point denying it, this year’s Giro d’italia has been disappoint­ing for the team and myself. The first weeks saw Remco slide out of contention before he then had to abandon the race after a crash on a descent. I also wasn’t able to provide as much support as I’d hoped to our dual GC attack of Remco and João.

The final week thankfully got better and better for all of us, João finished second on stages 17 and 19 after some great displays of teamwork.

Myself and Pieter Serry were in the breakaway on stage 17, after being distanced by the eventual stage winner, we were able to help João on the run in to the final climb. Then stage 19 the whole team helped take control of the stage to set a hard tempo and try and launch João for the stage win.

On top of that Remi Cavagna came close to taking an impressive solo win from the breakaway on stage 18. All close, but no cigar.

It’s never easy battling for three weeks when the race isn’t living up to the expectatio­ns that you had beforehand, but continuing to battle day after day is what the sport is all about and everything is a lesson moving forward.

 ??  ?? Breaking away on stage 17’s mountainou­s parcours
Breaking away on stage 17’s mountainou­s parcours
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