To The World Tour And Beyond

Having Secured His First Professional Contract at Quick Step Floors for the 2018 Season, James Knox’s Career Is on the Up

- Paul Knott

Quick Step Floors British neo-pro James Knox is doubting himself. But it’s not the prospect of his first season in the WorldTour peloton, or joining the winning test team in the top flight, or working under legendary team manager Patrick Lefevere, who has overseen the careers of countless cycling stars, that’s bothering him — it’s his failure to find domestic bliss.

“I moved out [to Girona] in 2016 with Dan Pearson before he went to Aqua Blue, got more money and moved into a nicer place,” Knox says. “Then Jake Kelly and Mike Thompson, both on Wiggins this year, moved out. There is something wrong with me; everyone has one year and then they jack it in.”

In our time with Knox we can’t see any reason the calm, mature and pragmatic Cumbrian would alienate his flatmates. Indeed, he seems well equipped to deal with the pressure cookers of home life and the WorldTour. Hardly surprising when you consider he has already been acclimatising himself to the strains he is set to face in cycling’s top flight.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to think that if I didn’t go pro after my last year as an under-23 then I had basically missed my chance,” he says.

“It’s strange because for four years as an under-23 rider you put all your time and effort in and you are sort of in the dark because you don’t really know what is happening. You are chasing this dream and then two weeks before Tour de l’Avenir I had three or four different people contact me and you suddenly think, ‘Woah, this is actually going to happen.’”