Tirreno Adriatico: Derek Gee retains GC place as Jake Stewart sprints to fourth

It was fourth places all round on the final day of Tirreno Adriatico with Derek Gee crossing the finish line safely to retain fourth overall, while Jake Stewart made the most of his freedom in the final to sprint to fourth place, narrowly missing the podium.

Although it came down to an expected bunch sprint, stage seven wasn’t an easy day of racing as Gee explained post-race.

“It was stressful and Ineos made the race pretty hard to keep the bonus seconds in play and move Ganna up. I was pretty disappointed yesterday to be off the podium but I think I’m a little happier now.”

While Gee had hoped to finish on the General Classification podium, he’s taking valuable lessons out of this week and relished the chance to race together as a team ahead of the Giro d’Italia.

“There were definitely some lows. We spent a big day chasing after a crosswind split but I was really happy with the time trial, really happy with the legs on the climbs, and the boys were amazing all week. I think we made some massive leaps in the process of how to ride for the GC so that was really positive.”

Gee had the support of Jakob Fuglsang, Marco Frigo, and Nadav Raisberg to guide him safely across the line, but Stewart was given a green light to go for the sprint.

Having surfed the wheels in the final kilometer, Stewart opened up his sprint with around 300 meters to go and hit the front but was unable to hold off winner Jonathan Milan, Sam Bennett, or Olav Kooij, instead settling for fourth place in what was a strong display of form after a tough week of racing.

“It was the mission to get Derek safely to the three kilometer mark first and the boys did a really good job of doing that. So I just surfed the wheels going into that point behind Lidl Trek. It all got a bit messy at the finish, a bit scrappy once it straightened out into the chicane, and I found myself a bit far back. I managed to float on the wheels until around 500 meters to go and then I saw the 300 meter to go board and realised I was still a bit too far back so I had to just go. In the end, it was just a little bit too long but I’m happy with the result.

“There are some big names here as well and I was kind of pushing them today. I think I got the jump on most of them and took them by surprise so it gives me confidence going into the Classics.”