Whereas one of many pre-race favourites Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) moved into the lead of the Critérium du Dauphiné with victory on stage 6, ending simply 13 seconds behind him in fourth was the shock GC package deal – Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech).
The Canadian, who gained stage 3 with a double late surge as much as Les Estables, broke by as a prime breakaway rider finally 12 months’s Giro d’Italia however the 2024 Dauphiné has seen him attain his profession peak at 26.
In 4 days of racing, he’s managed to win a stage and with it, transfer into the yellow jersey for a day, end fourth on the toughest stage but and keep fourth general heading into the ultimate two levels.
As we speak’s stage was by far essentially the most spectacular, nevertheless, with Gee even getting confused within the last few kilometres after being in unknown territory and combating with the likes of Roglič and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Fast-Step) in a mountaintop end to the hors categorie Le Collet d’Allevard.
“By a longshot,” Gee admitted to ITV when requested if the stage went higher than anticipated. “I believe I possibly even did an excessive amount of work within the climb simply because I’ve by no means been in that place.
“Often, I’m simply hanging on for expensive life in order that was fairly cool.”
After Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) began the assaults within the last 5km of the climb, Gee was noticed bridging throughout to the chasing group which included Roglič and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) with Evenepoel dropped already.
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However he was seemingly on the entrance an excessive amount of and at occasions dragging the remainder of the group in his wheel as much as the 2 leaders on the street. However he rallied within the last and was solely bested by the Bora duo and Jorgenson, beating a few of the prime climbers in world biking within the course of.
“They began enjoying video games and often I’m already passed by that time. There have been guys dropped and I used to be like ‘I do not need them to catch me’, so I simply began using,” mentioned Gee of his decision-making underneath excessive fatigue.
“Daryl [Impey, his DS] was in my ear going ‘Hey do not do an excessive amount of work’ and I used to be simply cross-eyed however I’m nonetheless fairly comfortable.
“I seemed again in a couple of hairpins and noticed the group was fairly small. Actually, I wasn’t actually serious about making an attempt to go for the win at any level I used to be simply considering I do not know when the lights are going to exit however they’ll exit in some unspecified time in the future. Fortunately, I made it to the road.”
Because of Gee’s gorgeous stage win and valiant defence of the yellow jersey within the stage 4 ITT, at this time’s climbing efficiency meant he held onto fourth general.
He’s sat nicely inside attain of the rostrum, simply three seconds down on Jorgenson, or at the very least a top-five GC lead to a WorldTour one-week stage race – one thing that may have been unthinkable earlier within the season after breaking his collarbone at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
“I believe now, after the primary check, I can simply attempt to see how the subsequent couple of days go and hopefully get an excellent GC consequence,” Gee mentioned.
He has a 31-second benefit on Vlasov in fourth and two extra brutally powerful summit finishes to take care of, however Gee appears to have discovered true flying type after coming down from altitude and with the Tour de France approaching, his greatest outcomes look but to reach.
