Monday's 16th stage of the Vuelta a España was a mixed bag for James Knox: the 23-year-old British climber missed out on a stage win at the summit of the Alto de la Cubilla, but there was enough consolation as his overall ranking rose from 18th to 11th place There were.

Knox quietly chipped away at the lower levels of the GC riders, hoping to break into the break in the second or third week. On a 144.4-km stage that included three major mountains in the Asturian range, he finally did just that.

Philippe Gilbert, Remi Cavagna, and Max Richez joined a group of 19 teammates. Knox responded to an attack by Jakob Fuglsang less than 10km from the top of the 17km final climb and joined a group of five.

Fuglsang accelerated several times and rode to a solo victory at the summit. Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos) finished second and Knox finished fourth with Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana).

With the top group in the peloton finishing more than six minutes apart, Knox moved up to sixth place and a top-10 finish.

"I'm really happy. I thought it was a good chance and everything went well," Knox told Eurosport. [But I couldn't keep up with Fuglsang. But I couldn't keep up with Fuglsang.

Indeed, when Fuglsang broke away from the five-man selection with Gianluca Brambilla, Knox was forced to shoulder the entire burden in the chase group. Fuglsang's teammate Sanchez was never going to contribute, but Knox expected more from his compatriot and contemporary Geoghan Hart.

"Well, he flicked me ...... He ran me. I might have to send him a message later," Knox said.

"He ran his race and I ran mine. He ran his race, I ran my race, and I was responsible for being in a good position in GC and jumping up the leaderboard. But the way I saw it, if he had worked with me, we would have been able to come back. But he did his race and I did mine.

In any case, Knox was mindful of those who ran with or for him. Deceuninck Quickstep put three players on the break, all of whom worked to set Knox up.

Knox made a brief attack on the final climb down, but then Gilbert brought the pack back together on the flat approach to Cubilla.

"What was really impressive was that when the bunch came back together, Cavagna was the only one in the lead. I was like, 'Okay, now I have a little bit of responsibility,'" Knox said. [Phil was talking on the radio and DS was talking on the radio. I was finally in the right place to get a chance to do something.'