DESPITE suffering from two crashes on consecutive days during the Giro d’ Italia this week Levens cyclist James Knox has put in an outstanding performance this season.

The 23-year-old Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider, who finished in the top-10 overall category at the UAE and most recently finished 14th overall against world-class cyclists at the Tour de Romandie, has now made his Grand Tour debut as part of his season at World Tour level.

Knox is the first Cumbrian to take part in the three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race.

“It’s a great honour just to be here at the Giro d’Italia, one of the biggest bike races in the world and I think the first Cumbrian to do so,” he said.

“It’s going to be a long three weeks and just a challenge to make it to the end so I’ll just have to see how it goes.”

On Monday, and with five kilometres to go, Knox crashed, causing him to fall from 20th overall to 90th. The following day, Knox crashed again with 12km to go in the 235km stage.

The cyclist tweeted on social media: “Hasn’t been much fun hitting the deck on consecutive days, cruel part of the sport but get through these next few days and then hopefully be back in the thick of it.”