Derek Gee: From the Paris-Roubaix Breakaway to the Giro d’Italia Podium

Derek Gee, a first-year neo pro, is having a dream season in his cycling career. He has participated in all 35 race days at WorldTour races, including making the breakaway at Paris-Roubaix and achieving second place on stage eight of the Giro d’Italia.

Gee, who initially came into his debut Grand Tour with the goal of “just surviving”, is now thriving. His smile at the finish line after winning the three-man sprint for second place spoke volumes.

“It feels like a win. I’m over the moon. Coming into this Giro, I thought I had no chance, I was just trying to survive and get experience so this is amazing. It’s really confidence inspiring to have the team believe in me and put me in a calendar like this so I’m really happy that I can validate that,” said Gee.

During the race, Gee made it into a four-rider breakaway, which eventually saw nine riders bridging across. Despite the challenging course with more than 2500 meters of climbing, Gee showed his strategic prowess.

“It hurt so bad and I thought maybe we would be caught but at the same time, I wanted to stay away. The four of us went away really early at the top of that first climb and we were just dangling there forever but I heard on the radio that the guys were doing a really good job of covering moves so I thought we would have a good chance of staying away. When the other guys came across I just started counting guys that were big names and I was thinking if this goes to the line, I’m going to have a tough time cracking the top-ten,” Gee explained.

Despite the challenging climbs, Gee fought his way back into contention and secured a podium spot in third position on the road.

“Kudos to Ben. When he went on that first climb he just disappeared so I was just really hoping to get on the podium. The climb was brutal but it flattened out over the top and I could see Zana just a few meters in front of me and I knew I had to make it to him before it flattened out or it would be way harder to catch him on the descent. So that was my motivation and I knew Barguil was behind and he was a good descender and he had been flying all day so I wanted to at least get a gap on him before the really technical descent,” Gee said.

Although Gee led the three-man chase group on the finish straight, he launched his sprint with 200 meters to go and held off the competition.

“I was really hoping for a podium so when Barguil came back, it was guaranteed anymore so it was a little stressful. I think my pride as the heaviest guy in that group was on the line and when I opened up my sprint, I just hoped I could hold them off,” Gee shared.

Sports Director Sam Bewley praised Gee’s performance, stating, “We wanted to get a rider in the breakaway and we had half the team on the attack so we were really happy when Derek made it into the group. We wanted to reduce the 13 riders to a smaller group before the climb to give Derek the option to back himself on the climb and he backed himself. It was a strong breakaway with quite a few riders typically better suited to the stage profile so what we saw today is just how strong and gutsy Derek is. I don’t think even he realizes how a big a ride he did today and it won’t be the last time we see him ride like this.”