May 19/25 11:59 am - Gee Calls First Week of Giro a 'Mixed Bag'

Posted by Editoress on 05/19/25
 

The first week of the Giro d'Italia concluded on Sunday with the highly anticipated ninth stage from Gubbio to Siena, which included gravel sections and an final climb into old Siena. For Canada's top hope, Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), both the stage and the week were a bit disappointing, with a flat in the gravel dashing his hopes of finishing with the front bunch, leaving him 3:59 down from leader Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), in 20th place.

Gee missed the split in the first stage, putting him 57 seconds back in 47th place. He had a stronger ride in the Stage 2 time trial, finishing 28 seconds behind winner Josh Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) to move up 11 spots in the GC. Stage 3 saw him move up two more spots, as did both Stage 4 and Stage 5. On Stage 6 he moved back into the top-30, but he made his biggest gain on the first climbing stage - Stage 7 - finishing 12th (11 seconds back) and moving up to 20th overall, 1:34 back. On Stage 8 he finished with the GC leaders behind a breakaway that scrambled the overall standings a bit, putting him 22nd and at 1:51 going into the first real test.

Derek was well placed until the first of the gravel sections when he flatted, and had to chase with Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro). The group finished 2:22 behind the duo of Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) and del Toro, and about a minute behind the GC favourites group. Van Aert attacked in the last few hundred metres to take his first win the season, while del Toro moved into Pink - the first Mexican rider to lead any Grand Tour.

Derek said after the stage, "it was a super cool stage. I've only done Strade [Bianchi] once and I finished outside the time limit, so it was cool to go out there with good legs. But when the race kicked off in the first [gravel] sector I was in a really good position; the boys put me in a really good position for the gravel. We were down to a small group, some of the favourites crashed and right after that I front flatted. Luckily, we had someone at the side of the road with a front wheel and Jakob [Fuglsang] helped me chase back and I got to the group of four [with Pidcock and Roglic], the one behind the GC group, and just chased for the rest of the day. On a stage like that it could have gone a lot worse, but it could have gone better ... I think I'm happy with the legs and happy to have made it through that stage safely, and looking forward to the rest of the race."

Photos courtesy Israel-Premier Tech

Overall, after the first nine stages, Derek says, "the first week was a bit of a mixed bag. Had a rough start to the race, but since then I've been happy with how the legs are trending. Unfortunately, had that little bit of bad luck on the gravel stage. We definitely aren't where we wanted to be going into the remainder of the race, but there is still lots of racing to go. So, I'm not too down on where we are sitting, because there is still lots of room to move up in the last two weeks."