{"id":702390,"date":"2026-05-29T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/702390\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T21:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T21:23:09","slug":"derek-gee-west-i-thought-we-had-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/702390\/","title":{"rendered":"Derek Gee-West: \u2018I thought we had the stage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a while on Friday, it really did look like Lidl-Trek might take its first Giro d\u2019Italia stage win this year.<\/p>\n

Instead, Osgoode, Ont.\u2019s Gee-West added another runner-up finish to his growing Giro r\u00e9sum\u00e9, taking second on the savage Stage 19 queen stage after a huge ride through the Dolomites. His teammate Giulio Ciccone finished third. The Italian was solo before getting caught by ultimate winner Sepp Kuss.<\/p>\n

This second, by Gee-West, was a little different than the four he had back in 2023. Back then he was an outsider. Now, he\u2019s one of the big GC contenders.<\/p>\n

Gee-West crossed the line 13 seconds behind Sepp Kuss after spending most of the day in the breakaway. He also grabbed bonus seconds at the Red Bull Kilometre. Now he sits fifth overall with two stages remaining.<\/p>\n

A brutal day of racing<\/p>\n

The 151-km stage was chaos almost from the start.\u00a0 There were six classified climbs packed into one brutal day in the Dolomites<\/a>. That included the Passo Giau and summit finish at Piani di Pezz\u00e8.<\/p>\n

Gee-West initially appeared content to ride with the GC contenders. However, the race exploded on the opening climbs. He was forced into action after Michael Storer attacked ahead of the pink jersey group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was super hard, I mean, right from the start,\u201d Gee-West said. \u201cI was just going to stay with the GC guys and then Tudor pulled a really good move with Michael jumping and then a bunch of their guys dropping back, pulling him across, so I had to go with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciccone\u2019s move<\/p>\n

Up front, teammate Giulio Ciccone was on a mission of his own, scooping up mountains points all day long in his fight for the maglia azzurra. Gee-West eventually bridged across to the Italian on the climbs before the pair found themselves in a dangerous move alongside Storer, Kuss and others over the Passo Giau.<\/p>\n

Toward the end, Ciccone attacked over the top of the climb. He flew down the descent while the chase hesitated behind him. For a brief stretch, it looked like Lidl-Trek had perfectly played the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I thought we had the stage when Cicco went on the descent and there was a bit of disorder behind,\u201d Gee-West said.<\/p>\n

The Canadian champ explained how the team\u2019s aggressive ride through the mountains had opened the door both for Ciccone\u2019s KOM ambitions and his own GC move.<\/p>\n

Mission accomplished for Ciccone<\/p>\n

\u201cTudor did a really good job into Giau to keep the gap open and then, yeah, Michael, Giulio and I committed to keeping it rolling,\u201d he said. \u201cCicco moved into the lead of the KOM, so that was a big goal going into the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he went for the KOM and Rubio sat up, there was just an immediate gap and he kept it going and I was on the radio telling him, you know, it was super disordered.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the move ultimately unravelled in the valley roads before the final climb, where Kuss powered across alone before riding away for the stage win.<\/p>\n

On Kuss\u2019s win<\/p>\n

\u201cHats off to Sepp, the way he pulled into the valley, I was sitting in the wheels and he still rode away from me,\u201d Gee-West said.<\/p>\n

Ciccone eventually faded on the steep summit finish after his earlier effort, but still held on for third while also taking over the mountains classification lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy. It was really painful. Full gas from the start to the end,\u201d Ciccone said.<\/p>\n

Gee-West now sits fifth overall at 6:31 behind race leader Jonas Vingegaard heading into Saturday\u2019s final mountain stage<\/a>. That features two ascents of Piancavallo before the race heads to Rome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a while on Friday, it really did look like Lidl-Trek might take its first Giro d\u2019Italia stage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[142395,49,48,635,162059,82,11588],"class_list":["post-702390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-giro-ditalia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-derek-gee-west","tag-sports","tag-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}