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Derek Gee climbs onto Critérium du Dauphiné GC podium with one stage to go

Primož Roglič increases race lead with second consecutive victory

Photo by: Sirotti
June 8, 2024
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Derek Gee’s 2024 has gone from satisfactory to marvelous over the course of a week. By coming fifth on Saturday’s penultimate stage, Gee climbed onto the Critérium du Dauphiné podium, second-place Remco Evenepoel floundering on the hardest of three consecutive summit finishes to conclude the race. Primoz Roglič took his second victory in a row and now leads American Matteo Jorgenson by 1:02. Gee is 13 seconds from the runner-up spot.

Until the Dauphiné Gee’s season was marked by a collarbone injury suffered when crashing out of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in late February. Now he’s flying high with the Tour de France just around the corner.

The Course

Four climbs were spread out evenly over 155 km. The Cat. 1 ascents were placed along the way to the hardest HC-rated summit finish of the race: Samoëns 1600 was 9.9 km of 9 percent.

Before the first climb of the day, Cat. 1 Col de Saisies, 15 riders bounded away. One of them was Hugo Houle. That breakaway didn’t stick, but another one got loose. By the third Cat. 1, escapee Marc Soler was solo up the road, and fugitive Lorenzo Fortunato had won enough KOM points to nick the polka dot jersey from Mathis Le Berre.

With Soler approaching Samoëns 1600 two minutes ahead of his former breakmates and nearly 4:30 ahead of the peloton, it looked good for the Spaniard’s victory and subsequent climb up the GC.

Soler was desperate to keep his advantage on Samoëns 1600.

Soler was on the granniest of the granny gears as the peloton seemed to take back 30 seconds per kilometre.

Evenepoel was seen at the back of the peloton and then was dropped.

Wearing the best young rider jersey, Evenepoel was dropped on the final climb.

Clad in Roglič’s green points “Froglič” jersey, Giulio Ciccone made the first dig to animate the favourites group, down to 13 riders including Gee with 5.5 km to go. With 4 km remaining, Soler’s lead was down to 1:30 and Evenepoel had shipped a minute to his rivals.

Soler was overwhelmed with 2.2 km to go, the UAE-Emirates rider immediately sent out the back. Eleven riders were left to contest the win and nine went under the red kite. Gee marked the man only 3 seconds ahead of him, Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jorgenson. Roglič went hard and Jorgenson grabbed his wheel but the Slovenian wouldn’t be denied. Jorgenson put a few seconds into Gee, who finished fifth.

The 76th Critérium du Dauphiné concludes on Sunday with a third consecutive summit finish.

2024 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 7

1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:29:14
2) Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma-Lease a Bike) s.t.
3) Giulio Ciccone (Italy/Lidl-Trek) +0:02
5) Derek Gee (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:05

2024 Critérium du Dauphiné GC
1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Bora-Hansgrohe) +21:15:50
2) Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:02
3) Derek Gee (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +1:13