June 29/25 10:35 am - Derek Gee Wins First Road Race Title
Posted by Editoress on 06/29/25
After missing out on the Elite men's time trial title by 34 seconds on Friday, Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) stormed back under dreadful conditions to win the road race title on Saturday, with his teammate Hugo Houle making it 1-2 for IPT. Michael Leonard (INEOS Grenadiers), the time trial champion, had to settle for third. The Under-23 men's title went to Jerome Gauthier (Équipe du Québec), who outsprinted another IPT rider, Luke Valenti.
Photo gallery Elite/U23 Men Road Race
The men's 199 kilometre race consisted of a rolling out-and-back 28.7 kilometre run to a 28 kilometre rectangular circuit, which the riders completed five times. While the usual Beauce climbs made for a difficult course, it was cold rain and wind that really tested the field - less than 40 out of over 100 starters finished.
The attacks began immediately, with a group getting away at the 20 kilometre mark. They were brought back when Gee went to the front of the peloton on a climb and shredded the field. By the 50 kilometre mark there were six away - Gee, Houle, Leonard, Valenti, Riley Pickrell (Israel Premier Tech) and Quentin Cowan (Velo Club Villefranche Beaujolais). It got shuffled a bit before the end of the lap, with Gauthier joining them and Cowan and Pickrell dropping off.
The five began to pull away, as the chase broke into smaller groups that couldn't make any headway. By the second lap the gap was over a minute, then two, and then three. The rain would back off and then come back, and the temperature dropped the 10C; even lower when the wind was factored in. The race was down to these five, with Gauthier and Valenti going for the Under-23 title, although Leonard was also a U23 by age, but had elected to ride as an Elite.
Leonard was the danger man for IPT, so they began to surgically remove him from the equation, with Gee attacking on Lap 4. Gauthier and Valenti were immediately dropped; to ride together to the finish, with Gauthier taking the title. Houle sat on Leonard's wheel as he tried to respond to Gee's attack.
The INEOS rider held the gap to under 30 seconds for a while, but then it began to creep up, to over a minute and then 90 seconds. Houle then jumped away on the fifth and final lap. Gee finished two minutes ahead of his teammate, with Leonard a further minute in arrears. This is Gee's first road race title, having won the time trial title twice.
See our interviews with:
Road Nationals: U23 and Elite Men Road Race results
Photo gallery Elite/U23 Men Road Race
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