Canadian bicyclist Derek Gee won the O Gran Camino roadway race in Spain on Sunday, do with a 35-second side over Italy’s Davide Piganzoli.
The 27-year-old from Ottawa, riding for the Israel-Premier Tech group, relocated right into the total lead of the five-stage race Friday after winning the specific time test. And he extended the lead from 5 to 37 secs after completing runner-up in Saturday’s phase.
He was 24th in a big team in Sunday’s last won by Denmark’s Magnus Cort, that ended up 3rd total.
It’s the very first total phase race success of Gee’s profession.
“It’s pretty cool to win my first GC (general classification),” statedGee “I love this race, I wanted to win it coming in — that was the goal — but winning races is not easy. I’m overjoyed.”
Israel-Premier Tech colleague Hugo Houle, from Sainte-Perpetue, Que., was 41st total after completing 69th Sunday.
‘They were so excellent today’
Gee attributed Houle and his various other colleagues– Daniel Lima, Marco Frigo, Pau Marti, Simon Clarke and Jakob Fuglsang– for their aid in safeguarding the win.
“I was pretty stressed going into it but I couldn’t have asked for a better team. I mean, I was at the front all day,” he stated. “They won every fight into all the important sectors, they controlled the breakaway and there was almost no stress because they were so good today. These are class bike riders.”
Sunday’s ending covered 165.3 kilometres, winding up in Santiago de Compostela after a hard Category 3 climb with 20 kilometres to go adhered to by 3 tough crushed rock areas.
Gee last led a race at the Criterium du Dauphine last June in France, investing someday in the yellow jacket accompanied a private time test.
Gee was advertised to Israel-Premier Tech’s WorldTour team from its academy in May 2022. He authorized a brand-new lasting sell June 2023 following his outbreak efficiency in his Grand Tour launching at the 2023 Giro d’Italia when he ended up second 4 times and 4th two times.
He ultimately ended up 22nd in the Giro’s last basic category standings and was runner-up to Italy’s Jonathan Milan in the factors race and France’s Thibaut Pinot in the King of the Mountains standings.
Gee was additionally honoured as the Giro’s “super combative rider.” Gee adhered to that by completing nine total in last summertime’s Tour de France.
The Canadian is slated to lead the Israel-Premier Tech group at this year’s Giro, which runs May 9 to June 1.
Gee missed out on 2 months of competing in 2015 after damaging his collarbone in an accident in Belgium.
He ended up 44th in last summertime’s Olympic roadway race in Paris and was the leading Canadian in the specific time test, positioning 20th.
In September, Gee was 22nd in the specific time test at the UCI Road World Championships inZurich He did not end up the roadway race.
Gee is additionally an achieved track bicyclist, coming 5th in the group quest at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Canada’s ideal Olympic lead to the occasion given that 1932. In 2019, he belonged to the Canadian team that ended up 4th in the group quest at the UCI Track World Championships.
