Gee-West is being incredibly Canadian about podium battle at the Giro

Derek Gee-West seems to move up the general classification of the Giro d'Italia with every stage, but the Canadian of Lidl-Trek thinks there is a limit to that upward trend. After stage 17, Gee-West told Cyclingnews and Cycling Pro Net that he does not expect miracles in the final two mountain stages on Friday and Saturday when it comes to the podium.

After 17 days of the Giro d’Italia, Gee-West sits sixth overall, 7:09 behind pink jersey holder Jonas Vingegaard. Felix Gall is second at 4:03 behind Vingegaard, while Thymen Arensman (Netcompany INEOS) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) are also close behind at 4:27 and 5:00 respectively .

So a battle for the podium is quite a stretch for Gee-West, as he admitted after stage 17. "I think the only place left to move up in the standings is Afonso Eulálio’s fifth place," he said, referring to the Bahrain Victorious rider who spent a long time in pink and is now also in the white young rider jersey as he fights for a top-ten finish.

"He has ridden really well, since he took pink on day five, but there will be a lot of guys wanting to go for his position," Gee-West said, adding that he expects help from riders behind him on GC.

"I expect a hard pace in stages 19 and 20, because Tudor and Jayco AlUla already rode hard today to stop Damiano Caruso from coming too far back in the classification," he said.

The 38-year-old Bahrain Victorious veteran moved up to ninth overall after making it into the break, and is now just under a minute and a half behind Gee-West. That means Tudor, with Michael Storer and Mathys Rondel, and Jayco AlUla, with Ben O’Connor, may have a problem protecting their own places in the top ten.