By Canadian Press

Canadian rider Derek Gee increases lead at O Gran Camino race in Spain

Mar 1, 2025 | 10:00 AM

O CEBREIRO — Canadian Derek Gee added to his overall lead at the O Gran Camino cycling race in Spain on Saturday after finishing runner-up to Guatemala’s Sergio Chumil in the fourth stage.

The 27-year-old from Ottawa, riding for the Israel-Premier Tech team, moved into the overall lead Friday after winning the individual time trial.

Gee holds a 37-second lead over Italy’s Davide Piganzoli going into Sunday’s final stage.

Danish rider Magnus Cort, who went into Saturday’s stage in second place just five seconds behind Gee, dropped to third overall — 49 seconds behind the leader.

Israel-Premier Tech teammate Hugo Houle is 38th overall after finishing 51st Saturday.

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Gee, who battled Chumil on the final Category 3 Alto de Cebreiro climb after they shed the other riders, credited his teammates for their help.

“The boys were amazing. I was really hoping to pull off the stage win with that for all the hard work they did,” he said. “But I just couldn’t quite go solo on the climb.”

Sunday’s finale covers 165.3 kilometres, ending up in Santiago de Compostela after a difficult Category 3 climb with 20 kilometres to go followed by three challenging gravel sections.

Gee last led a race at the Criterium du Dauphiné last June in France, spending one day in the yellow jersey coincided with an individual time trial.

Gee was promoted to Israel-Premier Tech’s WorldTour squad from its academy in May 2022. He signed a new long-term deal in June 2023 following his breakout performance in his Grand Tour debut at the 2023 Giro d’Italia when he finished second four times and fourth twice.

Gee eventually finished 22nd in the Giro’s final general classification standings and was runner-up to Italy’s Jonathan Milan in the points race and France’s Thibaut Pinot in the King of the Mountains standings.

Gee was also honoured as the Giro’s “super combative rider.” Gee followed that by finishing ninth overall in last summer’s Tour de France.

The Canadian is slated to lead the Israel-Premier Tech team at this year’s Giro, which runs May 9 to June 1.

Gee missed two months of racing last year after breaking his collarbone in a crash in Belgium.

He finished 44th in last summer’s Olympic road race in Paris and was the top Canadian in the individual time trial, placing 20th.

In September, Gee was 22nd in the individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich. He did not finish the road race.

Gee is also an accomplished track cyclist, coming fifth in the team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Canada’s best Olympic result in the event since 1932. In 2019, he was part of the Canadian squad that finished fourth in the team pursuit at the UCI Track World Championships.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2025

The Canadian Press