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 received stage 3 with a double late surge as much as Les Estables, broke via as a prime breakaway rider finally yr’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 total heading into the ultimate two levels.
At present’s stage was by far essentially the most spectacular, nevertheless, with Gee even getting confused within the closing 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 feel 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 closing 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 instances dragging the remainder of the group in his wheel as much as the 2 leaders on the street. However he rallied within the closing and was solely bested by the Bora duo and Jorgenson, beating a number 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 driving,” mentioned Gee of his decision-making beneath 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 pleased.
“I appeared again in a couple of hairpins and noticed the group was fairly small. Truthfully, I wasn’t actually serious about making an attempt to go for the win at any level I used to be simply pondering I do not know when the lights are going to exit however they’re going to exit sooner or later. Fortunately, I made it to the road.”
Due to Gee’s gorgeous stage win and valiant defence of the yellow jersey within the stage 4 ITT, as we speak’s climbing efficiency meant he held onto fourth total.
He’s sat effectively inside attain of the rostrum, simply three seconds down on Jorgenson, or at the very least a top-five GC end in a WorldTour one-week stage race – one thing that might have been unthinkable earlier within the season after breaking his collarbone at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
“I feel now, after the primary check, I can simply attempt to see how the subsequent couple of days go and hopefully get a very good GC outcome,” Gee mentioned.
He has a 31-second benefit on Vlasov in fourth and two extra brutally robust summit finishes to take care of, however Gee appears to have discovered true flying kind after coming down from altitude and with the Tour de France approaching, his finest outcomes look but to reach.
