Canada’s Derek Gee let loose a protracted sigh of aid after stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico, realizing that he was lucky the peloton closed the hole to the echelon assaults that lit up the stage south from Umbria into Abruzzo.
Gee missed the primary assault on the excessive plain after the Valico la Crocetta climb and was nonetheless chasing when race chief Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) received away in one other echelon assault. Gee misplaced teammates Hugo Houle and Pascal Ackermann throughout stage 3 and so had restricted assist within the peloton after the early climb shook out the sprinters and a few domestiques.
“Everything appeared easy even when it was depressing with the climate, then we received to the highest of the climb and we simply received caught off guard within the cross winds,” Gee admitted publish stage.
“Thanks to the boys, they rode out of their skins to get us again on and I managed to not lose any time in the long run. So nothing was misplaced however slightly extra traumatic than it wanted to be.”
Gee rode a wonderful opening time trial in Lido di Camaiore, ending simply 11 seconds down on stage runner up Ayuso, with Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) additionally impressing, ending the time trial solely six seconds down on the Spaniard.
Despite the horrible climate on Thursday, the GC has remained unchanged with Ganna staying within the chief’s blue jersey. Gee is just 12 seconds down on Ayuso because the decisive mountain levels close to. The different anticipated total contenders are all 20 seconds or so behind.
Friday’s fifth stage is from Ascoli Piceno to Pergola additional north within the Le Marche area. The 205km stage contains dozens of quick however steep rolling hills, with two nine-kilometre climbs on the ultimate 35km loop. It will certainly encourage the general contenders to go on the assault.
Saturday’s sixth stage is the one mountain end of this 12 months’s Tirreno-Adriatico. It is ‘solely’ 163km lengthy in comparison with the a number of levels over 200km however ends with a 7.7km, 7.8% gradient climb to the end above Frontignano at 1327 metres. Numbers that may see a battle for each second.
Gee impressed when he gained the current O Gran Camiño stage race in Spain and dominated the time trial stage. After his ninth place total on the 2024 Tour de France, he’ll additional take a look at his Grand Tour credentials by concentrating on the Giro d’Italia.
This 12 months’s Tirreno-Adriatico is a key stepping stone to greater targets in May.
Gee needs to combat for the rostrum within the closing three levels on Tirreno-Adriatico to kick-start his Italian stage race marketing campaign.
“We’ll must see how we get well from the final couple days however I felt good yesterday so hopefully at the moment there’s not an excessive amount of injury carried out,” he stated with a mixture of optimism and humility.
“The legs are nonetheless good for the times arising.”
