First-week disappointments - Derek Gee-West once again frustrated by early Grand Tour crash and time loss before final week surge

Derek Gee-West will have the same thing on his mind as he did finishing his last two Grand Tours. The Canadian finished this year's Giro d'Italia with some emphatic performances to seal a place in the top five but feels he could have been on the podium if not for some early time losses in week one.

The Lidl - Trek man attacked fourth place Thymen Arensman on Saturday's 20th stage to Piancavallo several times. During the climb he did look to be putting distance into the Dutchman but he and teammate Egan Bernal clawed their way back.

Gee-West looked perhaps the second-best climber of the day behind stage winner and pink jersey Jonas Vingegaard, but his place of fifth in the general classification doesn't tell the whole story.

"It was super hard. Right from the start, the pace was crazy fast, and if I had any hope of moving into fourth, I had to try to attack Arensman." Gee-West told CyclingNews.

"Jonas Vingegaard had already done his thing. I tried to go early and was working well with Jai [Hindley]. The Ineos guys were strong and clawed their way back in the end, and I just had to suffer in a sprint."

Ultimately, in his first year with Lidl-Trek and enduring some interrupted preparation for the race before a crash on stage two derailed his early race. Gee-West was caught up in a crash that saw general classification hopes such as Adam Yates' Giro end.

He said: "Yeah, I think there are two ways to look at it; fourth last year, fifth this year. I'm not stoked on that, but at the same time, I'm grateful to be here. I had a really s**t prep.

"I missed training camp and then, to be honest, after stage 2, after that crash, seeing how a lot of guys came out of that ... just to get through that and finish the race, and chalk up a GC result, even if it's not the one I want, I'm pretty happy with that."

On stage 2, Gee-West managed to join some chasing groups after his crash and lost 1:01 to the main GC contenders. In last year's Giro, he shipped 57 seconds to the main contenders on the very first stage.

In the 2024 Tour de France, Gee-West also lost 1:01 to the main group of favourites on the second stage. In all three grand tours, Gee-West enjoyed strong second and final weeks to take 5th, 4th and 9th respectively. Gee-West himself acknowledged that he has work to do to cut losses in the opening - often hectic and crash-marred - stages.

"I don't know if I always have to wait for the third week to have good legs, but maybe that's something we could work on. Just to get to that level at any point in the race. I'm super happy with that," Gee-West said.

"I started the year with a new team, and everything was going great and had a really good UAE Tour, and then the prep obviously wasn't going great, and so this is super nice to chalk up a fifth place.

"I think it's also motivational because to go fourth and then fifth is super frustrating, so it's something to aim for in the future. I was really happy with my level at the end of the race."