The Current - A Canadian cyclist’s fourth-place finish in a gruelling Giro d’Italia

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

<p>Canadian cyclist Derek Gee says five years ago, he wouldn’t have believed he’d ever make it to the Giro d’Italia – a gruelling, weeks-long cycling race. Gee tells Matt Galloway about his fourth place finish, and the blessing he received from Pope Leo along the way.</p>

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Derek G, though, fourth place in that fourth group and he's 23 seconds down on the Catapaz group. And now we start the clock ticking over. What a ride indeed. Out of nearly 200 of the world's best cyclists, Ottawa's Derek G finished fourth overall at this year's Giro d'Italia, the most prestigious bike race in the world, perhaps following the Tour de France, or maybe even before the Tour de France, depending on how you love your cycling. Derek G. raced for over 3,000 kilometers through four different countries, across mountains, cobblestone streets, even Vatican City, where he and his competitors received a blessing from Pope Leo. He crossed the finish line just shy of the podium

in Rome on Sunday, his best ever result at a grand tour. Derek Chi is in Andorra. Derek, hello. Hello, how's it going? I'm okay. You said that you were exhausted, but on a different level after this race. How are you feeling today? I've, yeah, I've spent three days in bed

and I'm starting to come around. You can walk and perhaps think about getting on a bike again in the future? Yeah, I got back on the bike today, although not for very long. You said that if someone told you a couple of years ago, in your words, that I'd finished top five in my favorite race, the one I've adored since I was a little kid growing up in Ottawa, I would have had a hard time believing it was possible. What did it mean for you not just to ride the Giro, but to finish and forth? What did it mean for you, not just to ride the Giro, but to finish and fourth? It's, it's, it is hard to describe. I mean, uh, it has always been my favorite race.

I remember in 2012 watching, watching rider Hagedal, the Canadian win, win this race. Um, that was, that was huge for, for cycling in Canada. And for me as a young, a young cyclist and yeah, to be able to top five it, I mean, a few years ago, I would have had a hard time believing I was going to turn professional. So yeah, to be there and to be able to compete with the best and yeah, miss the podium, but not by much. It's definitely a pretty special moment. What do you love about the Giro? I mean, as I said, people often talk about the tour, but the pink jersey of the Giro

is something special for cyclists. Yeah, the tour is, I mean, the biggest race in the world without a doubt. It's one of the biggest sporting events in the world. The Giro is, it's essentially the harder version of that. The tour is harder to win, obviously. The tour is the hardest bike race in the world to win. But the Giro, the stages are longer, the mountains are higher, the weather is worse. It's really, I think, yeah, the grand tour for the cycling, the real cycling enthusiast. What does it take to ride a race like this?

21 days. I mean, what are you eating? What are you sleeping? And what does it take to ride a race like this? 21 days. I mean, what are you eating? What are you sleeping? And what does it take? Eating a lot, sleeping a lot at the start. And unfortunately, your body gets so worn down, you actually sleep quite poorly by the end of it. But it's just massively attritional. I mean, forget racing for the top steps. Just to get through it, it's almost inevitable that at some point something is gonna go wrong.

And even if nothing goes wrong, it's still sometimes up to 240 kilometers a day and over some absolutely grueling mountains. So it's incredibly attritional. Things went wrong for you. I mean, you had kind of a rocky start. There was a crash and a puncture. And tell me a little bit about your mindset in this race.

Yeah, it's, it was definitely a roller coaster. Um, it started, my legs weren't great. Uh, at the start of the race, I wasn't doing very well overall. And, and yeah, I had a, had an untimely puncture on, on one of the race. I wasn't doing very well overall and yeah, had an untimely puncture on one of the stages through Tuscany that was on some gravel roads, lost some time there and then crashed in Napoli. It's all part of bike racing and I was definitely a little down in the dumps. Luckily, I had a good team around me that was basically saying, hey, don't worry, it's an incredibly long race. You know, it doesn't matter where you are a week in,

two weeks in, it matters, you know, where you are three weeks in. So yeah, a lot can change and had some bad luck, had some good luck. Some others had some bad luck. It's just so many variables over three weeks. What were you thinking coming into this race? I spoke to you a couple of years ago and you were, I mean, you were a fan

favorite at the Giro then, um, for doing so well, people loved the grit that you had shown, which we saw again in this race. So you had expectations, people knew you this time. What were your own expectations coming into this? Very, very high, which unfortunately, um, unfortunately is not nearly as fun a way to go into a bike race as I did this year last time with no expectations. It's a lot more pressure on myself and from those around me, which is to be expected. And yeah, it's obviously mentally tough when

the first few weeks it doesn't look like you're going to reach any of the goals you've set for yourself. But I think it makes it all the more rewarding at the end. How did you find what you needed in yourself to pull yourself out of where you were in, in those darker moments? Oh, it's just a, it's a reliance on, on the work that you've put in so far. Um, you know, I knew despite how you feel in the moment, you can always think back of the hours you've put in, the work that the team and the staff around you have put in

to get to that point and it's something to really be able to rely on when maybe in the moment isn't going well. It's like, well, there's a long way to go. And I know I've done the work to be good. Um, so it's just, uh, it's just a matter of, of waiting, waiting out those, uh, those rough times. And also knowing that in a race that long,

everyone's going through it, you know, no one, even the winner, you know, no one has, uh, no one has a clean three weeks. Are you surprised with what you found in yourself? I mean, you know that you can do this, but at the Even the winter, no one has a clean three weeks. Are you surprised with what you found in yourself? I mean, you know that you can do this, but at the same time, one of the things that races like this are about is kind of grabbing something in yourself that you didn't even know existed,

maybe, and moving beyond, pushing yourself beyond the limits that you thought you had. 100%, I mean, it also comes back, I think, to there is the mental aspect of it, of being able to go day in and day out. But I think it also comes back to where I was a few years ago. And it has taken a lot to almost convince myself that I can be competitive with these guys because these are also the people at the front of the Giro are the people that I looked up to as a kid. The people that it's where I always wanted to be and probably never believed I could be despite maybe those around me the last few

years have told me I could be, but obviously it's a lot harder to believe in it yourself. But I mean, you need to believe that you belong there in order to race with the best. So there was a lot of that, this race of realizing that I could be up there and competing with the best over a race like this. You believe it now? I definitely believe it now. What was it like riding through the Vatican?

The Pope was there. The Pope blessed the cyclists as they roared past the Colosseum. That was pretty special. I mean, it's special enough that on the last day, the streets of Rome are shut down and we get to race through there and see all the history. And okay, maybe they're not the nicest roads to race on because some of them are so old and cobbled. But it's, I think it was almost kept from us

how up close and personal we were going to be with the Pope. Maybe it was for safety reasons, who knows, but all of a sudden we rode into the square and he was right there talking to us. And it was, I think it caught everybody off guard. It was a really special moment. And so now what's the next goal for you? Just before I let you go briefly, what is the,

fourth is amazing, but you have goals now. I mean, to be so close to the podium, obviously fourth exceeded my own expectations, but to be so close to the podium, there is a part of me that believes I can get there. And that's, I think where the focus will be in the coming years. People were cheering you on in this country

and well beyond. You showed some real guts in this race and it was quite something. And a race itself was just bonkers to watch. Derek, congratulations on fourth. It's a fantastic finish. Thank you very much. This has been The Current Podcast.

You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 Thank you very much.