JAMES KNOX - GUEST COLUMN - I GET KNOCKED DOWN, BUT I GET UP AGAIN

Wow, what a rollercoaster of a last week it’s been! We got through Tuesday and Wednesday with two immaculate team performances to defend the pink jersey and the dream was starting to become real.

But reality hit us all hard on the Stelvio. It had been an all-out day of racing just to arrive at the foot of the climb, primarily thanks to Sunweb. Rohan Dennis then took over and the rest is history – bodies everywhere.

Hearing encouragement for João [Almeida] over the radio as he struggled was a real hammer blow, all the work that had gone into defending pink was gone in an instant.

I imagined his race was over from what I heard, but what a fight he showed for the rest of the stage.