It's not that often we get to take a peek behind the curtain at what it takes to be a Grand Tour GC contender. Almost all of the WorldTour’s best stage racers keep their data a closely guarded secret, making it impossible to translate the performances we see on TV into meaningful performance metrics.
Luckily for us, one GC rider who bucks this trend is Canadian Derek Gee (Israel Premier-Tech). Gee started the race with many expecting him to target a top-10 placing overall; however, as the race went on, it became apparent that he would over-deliver on this expectation.
To uncover exactly how he came to finish the Giro in fourth place, I sifted through three weeks of data to uncover what it took for Gee to achieve his best-ever Grand Tour finish.
Opening losses - Stages 1-3
Derek Gee’s Giro didn’t so much start as stumble. Three days, three setbacks –and a minute and a half gone, never to return. Hindsight is cruel: the 1:34 he bled in Albania could have left him just six seconds off the podium in Rome. But it also reveals something deeper: how brutal Grand Tours are when you miss a beat before the music’s even started. This isn’t to say that without these early losses, Gee could have been on the final podium, but at the very least, it would have changed the dynamic on the latter mountain stages.
Stage 1: Durrës - Tirana (160 km) GC gap to leader +57 seconds
Most opening stages of Grand Tours follow a similar pattern; they are either an opportunity for the sprinters to get their hands on the leader's jersey for a few days or a punchy finish that awards the same opportunity to the peloton's puncheurs. This Giro fell into the latter category however, there was no easing into things this year. Stage 1 featured almost 2,000 metres of climbing, including the 13-kilometre 5.2% Gracen climb. This wasn’t a high alpine test, but the 30-minute effort was an unusually demanding test for day one. Although the stage may have gone to a versatile sprinter in Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), the severity of the conclusion was uncharacteristic of a Grande Partenza.
The final of stage 1 saw the peloton take on the ascent of Surrel twice, with the second time ramping up the intensity for Gee. Sitting at 400 watts for six and a half minutes isn’t how GC riders expect to break in their legs on day one. The Surrel double-up hit hard, too hard for Gee, with the Canadian finding himself distanced before the top of the final climb. With a charging peloton chasing the race’s first maglia rosa, by the time he crossed the line, the damage was done. Some 57 seconds gone on day one, and any hopes of a strong GC performance had taken a hit immediately. On the descent to the finish, knowing the cost of each second, Gee didn’t simply roll in; he averaged 269 watts with a normalised power of 297 watts, holding a speed of 55.5 km/h.
Gee wasn’t the only GC hopeful caught out, but in a Giro that would go on to be so tight, early bruises left marks that didn’t fade.
Stage 2 ITT: Tirana - Tirana (13.7 km) GC gap +1:25
The second stage of the Giro saw the tides change. A drop in duration in exchange for a rise in intensity. A short, technical and punchy time trial aimed to separate the field. Gee put in a strong performance to finish 20th on the day, 29 seconds behind stage winner Josh Tarling. The 13.7 km course packed in three 180-degree turns, along with a 70-metre climb in the middle that averaged 4.9%.
Coming out of each of the 180-degree turns, Gee punched over 750 watts for between 6-10 seconds to get back up to speed before settling back into his pacing of roughly 400 watts.
This course was anything but a steady threshold effort, with Gee’s power spiking at over 700 watts 10 times on the course.
The time trial didn’t crack him, but it didn’t help either. Gee rode well. The problem? So did 19 others.
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Stage 3: Vlorë - Vlorë (160 km) GC gap +1:34
Stage 3 marked the Giro’s final day in Albania, and it was the most testing of the trio. Although the final 20 kilometres of the stage were flat, allowing sprinters to gather themselves and prepare for battle, the stage featured 2,912 metres of elevation gain.
The climb of Qafa e LLogarasë dominated the stage as far as climbing was concerned. 10.5 km at 7.5% is a serious climb by anyone's standards. For Gee, the effort saw some big numbers for a climb so early in a Grand Tour and without it being a summit finish.
He hung tough on the Llogarasë monster, but the slow leak of seconds continued to drip. By the time Gee landed on Italian soil, he had lost a minute and a half in three days. The game was still on, but two weeks before the race arrived at the high mountains, the battle was already uphill.
Gravel woes to turning the tables – stages 7, 9, and 10
Gravel in a Grand Tour is like kicking a hornet’s nest, and in this year’s Giro, stage 9 proved to be disruptive and unpredictable, with the white roads of Tuscany once again proving pivotal.
Just like stage 1, a puncture on the gravel saw Gee shed serious time – 2:22 to a surging del Toro. But from the very next stage, the Canadian began clawing back time like a stonemason with a chisel – steady, deliberate, relentless.
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