Derek Gee had no problems keeping the yellow jersey on the final stage of O Gran Camiño this Sunday, securing the first overall stage race victory of his career.
“Today was actually great,” he says. “It’s pretty cool to win my first GC. I love this race, I wanted to win it coming in – that was the goal – but winning races is not easy. I’m overjoyed.”
Knowing that the most important task today would be to keep Gee safe on the gravel sections near the finish, his IPT teammates made sure to always keep the 27-year-old Canadian in a good position near the front.
Daniel Lima, Marco Frigo, Pau Martí, Simon Clarke and Hugo Houle all did an impeccable job on the front of the peloton, while Jakob Fuglsang followed Gee like a shadow in case of ill-timed incidents.
Gee adds: “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. 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. They have amazing palmarès, and we even brought in a couple of our IPT Academy riders [into the squad], and they were amazing. They had to do a lot of work but they stepped up.”
Despite numerous attacks in the end, it all finished in a reduced bunch sprint, with Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) as the winner. Gee safely crossed the line in the front group together with Fuglsang to seal the overall victory.
