{"id":96920,"date":"2025-08-25T22:44:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/96920\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T22:44:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:44:03","slug":"ottawa-rider-derek-gee-quits-israel-premier-tech-setting-off-legal-dispute-over-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/96920\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa rider Derek Gee quits Israel-Premier Tech, setting off legal dispute over contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Derek Gee, who has been linked to Britain\u2019s Ineos Grenadiers in some news reports, says he has not signed with a new team.Daniel Cole\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Canadian rider Derek Gee says he is done with Israel-Premier Tech, saying \u201ccertain issues simply made my continuation at the team untenable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech, meanwhile, insists Gee\u2019s contract remains in effect.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old from Ottawa has not detailed his objections. But his short social media post was titled \u201cStatement regarding my absence at La Vuelta and Israel-Premier Tech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gee, who finished fourth in the Giro d\u2019Italia earlier this year, is not part of the Israel-Premier Tech entry at the Spanish Vuelta that started Saturday.<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech, co-owned by Israeli-Canadian entrepreneur Sylvan Adams, issued a brief statement last week saying it had \u201cunexpectedly\u201d received a notice of termination from Gee\u2019s lawyers. The team said Gee had been in discussions about renegotiating the deal signed after Gee turned heads in the 2023 Giro.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael-Premier Tech remains firm in its stance that Derek Gee\u2019s contract with the team is valid,\u201d the team repeated in a statement Monday. \u201cThe situation is now in the hands of UCI and legal representatives to resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) is the governing body of world cycling.<\/p>\n

Gee said Monday that his contract had been \u201cformally and duly terminated\u201d by his lawyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not an easy decision, but one I made after careful consideration and for legitimate reasons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While Gee has been linked to Britain\u2019s Ineos Grenadiers team in European reports, he said: \u201cIn accordance with UCI regulations, I have not yet signed with, nor even talked to, any new teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gee was promoted to Israel-Premier Tech\u2019s WorldTour squad from its academy in May 2022.<\/p>\n

He made his mark a year later in his Giro debut, placing second four times and fourth twice. Gee eventually finished 22nd in the final general classification standings and was runner-up to Italy\u2019s Jonathan Milan in the points race and France\u2019s Thibaut Pinot in the King of the Mountains standings.<\/p>\n

Gee was also honoured as the Giro\u2019s \u201csuper combative rider.\u201d He followed that success by finishing ninth overall in the 2024 Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Gee finished third overall in the storied Criterium de Dauphine in June 2024, winning one stage and finishing in the top 10 in four others. It marked his first WorldTour general classification podium.<\/p>\n

Last summer he was 44th in the Paris Olympic road race and was the top Canadian in 20th in the individual time trial.<\/p>\n

In September, Gee placed 22nd in the individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich. He did not finish the road race.<\/p>\n

Gee is also an accomplished track cyclist, coming fifth in the team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Canada\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Israel-Premier Tech is home to fellow Canadian riders Michael Woods, Hugo Houle, Guillaume Boivin, Riley Pickrell and Pier-Andre Cote. Steve Bauer, the first Canadian to win a stage at the Tour de France, is the team\u2019s sporting manager.<\/p>\n

Woods, 38, recently announced this season will be his last a pro rider. Cote, meanwhile, is part of IPT\u2019s team for the Spanish Vuelta, his first Grand Tour event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Derek Gee, who has been linked to Britain\u2019s Ineos Grenadiers in some news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,635,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-96920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-cycling","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96920","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=96920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}