Derek Gee reflects on the Dauphiné and looks ahead to the Tour de France

Misuse: We need to talk about Dauphiné– congratulations, but also: who cares? Going in, was it your plan to become team leader, or how did the whole race go? Was the team shocked, or had this been a plan all along?

Derek Gee: The plan all along was to ride a pressure-free classification, not as team leader, but just riding to the line every day and seeing where I ended up. The goal was top 15, so this was definitely unexpected for me and the team!

After your Dauphiné performance, people say you are now a stage racer. Would you agree with that? Or would you rather not be placed in a certain category?

I’m not sure, I just enjoy all kinds of racing, but the rankings are definitely something I’ll be looking at long-term for the future. I’ve had a lot more success in stage races than in one-day races, so that will probably be more on my agenda.

You had some fantastic results at last year’s Giro, but this was your first big victory: winning Real do you feel that much better than second place?

Indescribably better! The first second place at the Giro last year felt like a win, but after that the frustrations started to build a bit, getting a win was such a huge relief to finally tick that box.

Has there been a shift for you in the past year, from a young rider from Canada flying somewhat under the radar to making headlines at these races?

A really huge change, especially during the Giro last year. I had trouble sleeping because I couldn’t shut off my brain, it was something I had never experienced before. This time in the Dauphiné it was a bit like that, but fortunately I was able to exclude it a little better and recover for the following days.

What has changed in terms of training in the last two years, such as: how did you get so fast?

The biggest was a purposeful shift towards improving my climbing. There were few flashes of this in the Giro last year, so with the team’s help I focused on losing some weight. I went to the altitude camp before the Dauphine to really make the most of it, along with just a lot of climbing meters. those come from an altitude camp of course, and I’m really glad it paid off!

This year you started the season with a crash and a broken collarbone. How was the comeback process? What have you learned in terms of recovery, concussion-wise?

It was definitely a difficult start to the season, I had a big classics campaign ahead of me and the first race put an end to that. Mentally it was a tough comeback, especially since my timeline was a return to racing right at the end of all my big spring goals. However, the team was great and never rushed me. I had tremendous support from the staff for the recovery process, and most importantly, people pushed me to take it easy because of my concussion. Especially with a brain injury, I think it’s easy to come back too quickly, so it was crucial to have people around me to make sure I took my time and took it seriously.

You have one of the longer contracts in cycling, with another four years at Israel Premier Tech – why would you make such a long-term commitment?

It was a pretty easy decision to commit to this team for such a long term. It has Canadian roots and the support they have given me throughout my career has been incredible.

It’s your first Tour de France: what are your ambitions heading into the race?

Goal number one for the Dauphiné was to win a stage in the Tour and that remains the same! Hopefully I can get into the right breaks and win one.

Which stage are you most looking forward to?

Stage 15 is as close to my home in Andorra as the Tour gets this year, and my parents will be watching from there until the end of the race, so that’s definitely what I’m looking forward to the most this year.

Which one are you secretly afraid of?

Stage 19 to Isola is one I’m a bit dreading, we’ve just finished an altitude camp there and I’ve done that finish climb to Isola more times than I can remember, so I know precisely how much will that hurt…

How does Tadej Pogačar’s dominance from the peloton feel? Is it frustrating, inspiring, annoying?

Luckily I’ve been able to race with Tadej very rarely, and never in a stage race, so I think I’ll find out soon enough what it’s really like and report back.

What are you currently watching or reading during your downtime? Do you follow any other sports?

The most important thing right now is the NBA Finals, and just like with the men, I’m watching the biggest races of the year on the women’s side and every race my friends are in!

Molly writes about cycling, nutrition and training with a focus on getting more women involved in the sport. She is the author of nine books, including the Shredded girls series and is the founder of Strong Girl Publishing. She is the co-host of The Consummate Athlete Podcast and spends most of her free time biking and running on trails, occasionally accompanied by her mini dachshund.