"I don't know if he had made an understanding with someone else" - Derek Gee hits back at Einer Rubio; talks GC raid in the Dolomites

Derek Gee had an extremely eventful day at the Giro d'Italia, starring several plots that marked the day. The Canadian rider entered the fight for the podium after a non-planned breakaway, reached for the stage win and also got in a heated spat with Einer Rubio.

The latter happened during the Passo Falzarego, the penultimate climb of the day, in which he sprinted to get six seconds of bonifications in order to boost his placing in the overall classification. After doing so, he was confronted by an angry Rubio.

According to Gee, he was unaware that Rubio had made a deal with Giulio Ciccone that he would let the Italian take maximum KOM points, if he then left the Red Bull Kilometer for the Colombian - for the prize money, one must assume. However Gee said he was not aware of such a deal, although he was the key part of it.

“I went for the Red Bull sprint just because Michael [Storer] and I are only a few seconds behind. And I don't know if he (Rubio, ed.) had made an understanding with someone else or something, but I thought it was fair game, so I went for it".

Rubio later on sprinted to take KOM points from Ciccone at the top of the climb, as Lidl-Trek formed an enemy in the Movistar rider.

But being in the day's breakaway to begin with was not planned, and a situation which ended up being perfect for the Canadian national champion. After Damiano Caruso attacked the first climb of the day, Tudor chased the front of the race from behind and Derek Gee followed the two riders that threatened his sixth place.

But no-one behind chased this group, and with Visma not being interested in bringing back the breakaway, the gap escalated to a few minutes. Gee found himself provisionally seconds away from the likes of Felix Gall and Thymen Arensman - and ahead of Jai Hindley at some point.

“Yeah, it was super hard. I mean, right from the start, I was just going to stay with the GC guys, and then Tudor pulled a really good move with Michael [Storer] jumping and then a bunch of their guys dropping back, pulling him across the break, so I had to go with that".

The GC was at play all day long, but the stage win also became a very real possibility for thr German team. “Then to be honest, I thought we had the stage when Cicco went on the descent [of Falzarego], and there was a bit of disorder behind".

“Yeah, I mean, just making sure he [Ciccone] could get the KOM points. I think he moved into the lead. So that was a big goal going into the day. And then yeah, when he went for the last ones, and Rubio sat up, it was just an immediate gap, and he kept it going".

“And yeah, I was just on the radio telling him, you know, it was super disordered. And I mean also credit to Michael [Storer], he knew he was riding for a GC gap, and he just put his head down in the valley. I mean, I have no idea what the gaps were, but we kept it rolling. Um, Tudor did a really good job into Giau to keep the gap open, and then yeah, Michael [Storer], Giulio and I committed to keeping it rolling".

The final climb averaged 10%, however Gee had the freedom to follow wheels whilst Ciccone led the race and also worked towards his own KOM goals. It worked perfectly for the duo and the stage would've had the perfect outcome, if it weren't for Sepp Kuss who relegated the Lidl riders to second and third on the day.

"I guess hats off to Sepp [Kuss], he pulled the valley. I was sitting in the wheels and he still rode away from me.” Gee couldn't take the full benefit from the day, but nevertheless put in a masterful climbing performance.

He jumped to fifth in the overall classification and is now only 58 seconds away from Thymen Arensman, which makes a fourth place possible tomorrow - whilst the podium is 1:27 minutes away from him.