While one of the pre-race favourites Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) moved into the lead of the Critérium du Dauphiné with victory on stage 6, finishing just 13 seconds behind him in fourth was the surprise GC package - Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech).
The Canadian, who won stage 3 with a double late surge up to Les Estables, broke through as a top breakaway rider at last year’s Giro d'Italia but the 2024 Dauphiné has seen him reach his career peak at 26.
In four days of racing, he’s managed to win a stage and with it, move into the yellow jersey for a day, finish fourth on the hardest stage yet and maintain fourth overall heading into the final two stages.
Today’s stage was by far the most impressive, however, with Gee even getting confused in the final few kilometres after being in unknown territory and fighting with the likes of Roglič and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) in a mountaintop finish to the hors categorie Le Collet d'Allevard.
“By a longshot,” Gee admitted to ITV when asked if the stage went better than expected. “I think I maybe even did too much work in the climb just because I’ve never been in that position.
“Usually, I’m just hanging on for dear life so that was pretty cool.”
After Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) started the attacks in the final 5km of the climb, Gee was spotted bridging across to the chasing group which included Roglič and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) with Evenepoel dropped already.
But he was likely on the front too much and at times dragging the rest of the group in his wheel up to the two leaders on the road. But he rallied in the final and was only bested by the Bora duo and Jorgenson, beating some of the top climbers in world cycling in the process.
“They started playing games and usually I’m already gone by that point. There were guys dropped and I was like ‘I don't want them to catch me’, so I just started riding,” said Gee of his decision-making under extreme fatigue.
“Daryl [Impey, his DS] was in my ear going ‘Hey don't do too much work’ and I was just cross-eyed but I’m still pretty happy.
“I looked back in a few hairpins and saw the group was pretty small. Honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about trying to go for the win at any point I was just thinking I don't know when the lights are going to go out but they are going to go out at some point. Luckily, I made it to the line.”
Thanks to Gee’s stunning stage win and valiant defence of the yellow jersey in the stage 4 ITT, today’s climbing performance meant he held onto fourth overall.
He’s sat well within reach of the podium, just three seconds down on Jorgenson, or at least a top-five GC result in a WorldTour one-week stage race - something that would have been unthinkable earlier in the season after breaking his collarbone at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
“I think now, after the first test, I can just try and see how the next couple of days go and hopefully get a good GC result,” Gee said.
He has a 31-second advantage on Vlasov in fourth and two more brutally tough summit finishes to contend with, but Gee seems to have found true flying form after coming down from altitude and with the Tour de France approaching, his best results look yet to arrive.
