GEEro Italia: Gave it his all

 

Breakaway revelation and passionate ornithologist, 25-year-old Canadian Derek Gee who started out as a track rider turned stage rider held in there to finish second place in the queen stage in the Dolomites. Not only acquiring plenty of respect for his gutsy rides and turning into one of Israel-Premier Tech's new number ones, he most likely will get a long contract extension. What a rider he has become!

"If I stayed in the peloton, there was no chance I could win so I may have got second a lot but at least I gave myself a shot. I thought this would be a GC day but after the intermediate sprint, the peloton gave us a bigger and bigger gap. Suddenly, I had to wrap my head around going to the finish. My legs were already done by that point. 

I think that one will take awhile to sink in, to be able to fight for the win on a stage like today was something I never imagined coming into this Giro. Four second places hurts for sure, but it makes me hungrier moving forward to get that first win. I'm super proud of the team at this Giro, we showed what we are made of and even if we didn't get that stage win, I think we gave ourselves the best chance to do it almost everyday."

-Derek Gee is now second in both the points and the KoMs classification.

Riders with most 2nd positions on one single Giro d'ltalia in the 21st Century (4X 2nd places)...

Olaf Pollack (2004)

Giacomo Nizzolo (2014)

Peter Sagan (2020)

Jonathan Milan (2023)

Derek Gee (2023)