Derek Gee-West on what he discussed with Giulio Ciccone at the Giro queen stage

Derek Gee-West looked for a long time on Friday to be heading towards a possible podium place in the Giro d’Italia, but in the end the strong Canadian from Lidl-Trek just missed out everywhere. He finished second on the stage and also saw the other GC riders close in, partly because of an attack from his teammate Giulio Ciccone.

Afterwards, Gee-West spoke out. Why was he even up there in the first place? “It was a very hard day from the start. I wanted to stay with the other GC riders, but Tudor made a very good move by letting Michael Storer attack. They let other riders drift back at the same time, which allowed us to ride forward.”

“Tudor did very well to keep the gap big, after which I, Michael and Giulio kept things going. It was just a hard day,” Gee-West repeated, and he did not have much to say about Ciccone for his general classification. The Italian’s attacking instincts did, however, earn him the mountain jersey in this Giro.

“We spoke about his ambition to take the mountain points, and I think he is now also in the lead, which was a big goal,” Gee-West said via his team’s channels about the collaboration with Ciccone, who eventually attacked on the penultimate climb.

“When he went again for the last time and Rubio was on his wheel, he simply went for it. I told him over the radio that there was no cooperation, which meant Michael had to ride,” Gee-West explained, who is now fifth overall.

“When he attacked on the descent and we were messing about a bit behind him, I thought we had the stage win. But I just have to take my hat off to Sepp. When he rode on the front in the valley, I was just on his wheel. But I still had to let go,” the Canadian said of the stage winner from Visma | Lease a Bike.