A Gee-ro d’Italia to remember
Two years ago Derek Gee rolled into Rome after a breakthrough Giro d’Italia and Grand Tour debut which saw him make a name for himself as a breakaway specialist. Having narrowly missed the win on four occasions, his performance left no doubt as to how bright his future would be but the question remained, what kind of rider would he become?
Fast forward two years and that question has been well and truly answered after Gee rolled into Rome once again, this time sitting fourth on the General Classification. Just his third Grand Tour, and his second top-ten after securing ninth at the Tour de France in 2024, Gee came in targeting a top-five at the Giro d’Italia. Instead, he went one better and proved he has what it takes to target the GC.
“I didn’t want to put a number on it at the start,” explained Gee on his objective for the race. “But, the number I had in my head was a top five. So I’m relieved and I’m very, very happy to have been able to achieve that.”
It was a case of playing the long game this year. Having lost time on the opening stage and suffering an ill-timed puncture on the gravel on stage 9, Gee consistently climbed the GC ranks throughout the three weeks and entered the final week of racing in fifth place.
Strong legs and an incredible ability to suffer saw Gee move up one more place in the mountain-heavy last few stages and although the podium was within reach, Gee finished the Giro knowing he gave it everything to put pressure on the final podium of Simon Yates, Isaac Del Toro, and Richard Carapaz. In his words: “I had the fourth-best legs”.
“I don’t think two years ago I ever could have imagined this. And, to be honest, it just makes me a lot hungrier for more, because I know there are still areas we can improve. We’ve only been doing this GC project for a year now so I’m really looking forward to more.”
Having sat in the race car behind Gee in his inaugural Giro d’Italia in 2023 and again this year, Sports Director Sam Bewley praised Gee’s evolution as a rider, acknowledging the work Gee and the team have put in over the last two years.
“I think in 2023, when Derek was doing all those breakaways, that was kind of the moment we started to think, “Could we turn him into a GC rider?”,”explained Bewley. “Because of the way he was climbing and obviously how strong he was. So we sort of put that to the side a little bit and made it a bit of a long-term project to see how things would go.
“Over the last 12 months or so, since the Dauphiné last year, we’ve invested more in that project, to try to develop him into a GC rider, with the Giro as his first really big objective of riding GC at a Grand Tour. And I think the result here is validation. Validation to Derek and validation to the team that he is that type of rider and he can be successful in these types of races. With the right preparation, the right hard work, and the right teammates around him, it can be effective. So it’s a very, very rewarding result, for the team and for Derek, and, like I say, validation of where we can go with him.
“The objective for the Giro was top five. It wasn’t an objective we shared liberally with the riders, we just focused on trying to finish as high up the GC as we could. But in all our planning meetings with the performance team, we identified top five as something that would be difficult to achieve, but something we thought was realistic if we did a good race and rode well and Derek had good legs.
“So to finish fourth is exactly where we believed we could end up if things went our way and the process was right. Fourth place, I would’ve signed 100% for that.”
Giro d’Italia General Classification
1. Simon Yates (Visma – Lease a Bike)
2. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) +3.56
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education First) +4.43
4. Derek Gee (Israel – Premier Tech) +6.23
