March 17/25 15:40 pm - Derek Gee Fourth Overall at Tirreno-Adriatico

Posted by Editoress on 03/17/25
 

Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) took another big step over the past week in his development as a stage race GC rider - finishing fourth overall in the World Tour Tirreno-Adriatico competition, only four seconds off the podium.

One week after winning the O Gan Camino stage race - his first UCI stage race win - Gee led his team into the seven stage Tirreno-Adriatico. Two-time ITT world champion Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) won the opening 11.5 kilometre time trial to take the leader's jersey, but Gee was a strong sixth, 34 seconds back.

The next four stages saw bunch finishes, with little changes to the GC, except for Gee moving up to fourth overall on Stage 3, still 34 seconds in arrears. Stage 6, the Queen stage of the race, on Saturday, saw the final GC changes take place. The 163 kilometre stage finished with a 7.5 kilometre HC (Beyond Category) climb that averaged nearly 8%.

The top contenders surged to the front on this climb, overtaking the early breakaway. Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates - XRG), second to Ganna in the standings, attacked solo and rode away to take the stage win and move into the overall lead. Ganna was the first of the contenders to get dropped, with Thomas Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro) jumping late in the race to finish second 13 seconds back with Jao Hindley (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) in third at the same time. Gee was sixth, 20 seconds behind Ayuso and seven seconds behind Pidcock. Ayuso and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious) leapt over Ganna in the overall standings, but the Italian, despite finishing 13th on the stage, 50 seconds down, just managed to retain third overall, four seconds in front of Gee. The final stage came down to another sprint finish, with Ganna scoring a three second intermediate bonus on the stage to move back into second overall.

"I would say Tirreno was a massive step towards the Giro," stated Gee. " I think just having a good solid amount of the team together and getting to work together as a team with the goal of GC - which is still relatively new to us - I think that was really, really helpful. This was a World Tour race and a lot of these guys will be at the Giro."

"So I'm happy to come away with a good result there, because I think it just checks another box along the way of being able to be up there [at the front of the race] and setting good expectations as to where I can finally end up at the end of the Giro on the GC. So, very happy with the result and looking forward to the next races."

Tirreno-Adriatico: Stage 7 and Final GC