Jonas Vingegaard left, Derek Gee right
The Giro d'Italia ended on Sunday with a crazy sprint through the streets of Rome, and I feel I have been remiss in not keeping you up to date.
I've mostly been keeping up with the race through the daily "extended highlights" (on the Cycling part of the streamer FloSports). These last about 20 minutes, and give a sense of the route, some of the landscape and monuments, and a least a sense of who's winning. But not watching about three hours a day, you are a bit on the outside. It's hard to get informed about all the teams' new colours, and the riders numbers, and the thousand of ins and out of who's crashed, who team looks strongest, and who might step up in the big mountains.
So briefly Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark is king of any race that Tadej Pogachar of Slovenia does not enter. Tadej skipped this year's Giro, so Vingegaard dominated whenever he chose, and looked like being winner long before it ended on Sunday.
Notons, however, number five in the overall standings, and second only to Vingegaard on the highest peak of the whole 21 days of racing, was Canadian Derek Gee. Gee is now definitely the heir to Ryder Hesjedal and Michael Woods as the latest "big Canadian boy" who can storm up the mountains with the best of him. (Recently married, he's now Derek Gee-West, not that it gets him any more coverage in the Canadian sports press.)
Last year Gee suddenly quit the Israel-Premier Tech racing team, seemingly in protest of the actions of the Israeli state sponsor in Gaza. In response the team threatened to keep him off the road for the duration of his contract. But this year the Premier Tech has a new co-sponsor, and Gee is riding for one of the very strong teams, Lidl-Trek.
Both Vingo and Gee are expected to contend in the Tour de France in July. And so will Tadej Pogachar
