At the start of Il Lombardia, James Knox hoisted his bike upright onto its rear wheel, gave the front one a good spin with his hand, and watched on as five riders filtered through the tunnel of bikes that he and the rest of the peloton had formed in honour of their impending retirements. He might have been wondering whether he should be in the middle himself.
There was no guard of honour, but Il Lombardia could well turn out to be the British climber’s final race.
"I'm currently without anything for next year," Knox told Cyclingnews ahead of the race, and he reckons "it’s become a situation where it might be hard for me to get anything for next year."
Knox, who started his career with eight seasons at QuickStep, has spent 2026 at Picnic-PostNL, on a one-year contract that, as things stand, will go no further than that.
It has been a frustrating season for the rider, and a disastrous one for the team, who have won just twice all year and are not only bottom of the WorldTour team ranking, but outranked by 10 second-division ProTeams.
"It's been a disappointing season for me personally, and also the team has struggled as well. So it's not been the best. I would say it's been a tough period," Knox said succinctly.
"I never really got going, had some setbacks, and here we are – it feels like the end of the season. I never really showed myself very well at any point, so it's frustrating in that regard."
Knox turns 31 next month and though he has had a good nine-year career in the WorldTour, it feels premature for him to be considering his retirement, but that’s the situation he finds himself in.
"Of course I wish I did have something," he said. "I would still cross my fingers, but the reality of the situation with cycling now, with limited space for the WorldTour teams, many, many quality riders, a lot of focus on points, and younger riders coming through with guaranteed contracts from development teams… I think it's become a situation where it might be hard for me to get anything for next year. I don’t know what will come of it.
"This is the trials and tribulations of how lucky we are to be here, but at the same time, it's extremely difficult to stay here, to stay on top of your game. It's professional elite sport, at the end of the day and there are always people coming up, always riders proving themselves, so you've got to fight for your spot every year.
"I’ve had a good career regardless," he added. "So it might be hard to step down all the levels, to keep fighting, to come back, but yeah… let's say for WorldTour and ProConti [ProTeam] it’s looking pretty hard."
Knox has already had a taste of work away from the bike, appearing as a studio pundit for TNT Sports during the Giro d’Italia.
"That's just something that happened," he said. "I would like to take any opportunity you can get, basically – that’s something for life, isn't it? So I was really happy to do that for a few days at the Giro, and who knows where the future goes."