Gee-West explains Red Bull KM incident with Rubio: 'I thought it was fair game'

Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek), who started the stage just five seconds ahead of the Australian, had no choice but to respond to the move. It proved to be the right decision, as they worked their way into the front group, giving themselves an opportunity to gain time on their fellow GC contenders. 

“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,” Gee-West told reporters, including Cyclingpro.net.

Gee-West had his teammate, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), for company in the strong move. Ciccone, sporting the maglia azzurra on behalf of Jonas Vingegaard, wanted to lead the competition outright and took maximum points over the many climbs on offer, including the 2026 Giro’s cima coppi, Passo Giau. 

There was an incident with 32km remaining at the Red Bull KM, when Gee-West and Storer darted towards the line, with valuable bonus seconds on offer. Gee-West took the maximum six before he was confronted by a far from happy Einer Rubio (Movistar). 

The Movistar rider was the leader in the Red Bull KM overall standings and wasn’t happy with the situation, though Gee-West simply saw an opportunity to take important seconds in the GC. 

“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] had made an understanding with someone else or something, but I thought it was fair game, so I went for it,” explained Gee-West

The incident triggered a chain reaction. On the penultimate categorised climb, Rubio contested the sprint for mountain points at the summit, much to the frustration of Ciccone. 

The duo had opened an advantage as a result of their efforts, and a fired-up Ciccone continued to press on with his effort. The Italian distanced Rubio on the descent and opened up an advantage of over a minute to the chasers at the foot of the final climb to Alleghe. 

It set the Italian up in the prime position to land the fourth Giro stage win of his career, as Gee-West also thought. However, Ciccone was caught and passed by Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) with 2.2km to go, with the American going on to complete the Grand Tour stage win set. 

“Then to be honest, I thought we had the stage when Cicco went on the descent, and there was a bit of disorder behind,” Gee-West explained. “I guess hats off to Sepp [Kuss], he pulled the valley. I was sitting in the wheels and he still rode away from me.” 

In the end, Gee-West also caught and passed his teammate to finish second on the stage, 0:13 behind Kuss, while Ciccone held off the maglia rosa group for third. Despite his relatively late catch, Ciccone had still done enough to move into the lead of the mountains classification, now holding a 57-point lead over Vingegaard with one last key stage remaining.  

“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,” said the Canadian champion.

“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,” added Gee-West.

As a result of his efforts, Gee-West moved up to fifth in the GC, at 6:31 from Vingegaard, but just 1:27 from the final podium spot occupied by Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). It was a good day overall for the Canadian champion. 

“Yeah, for sure. I mean, I have no idea what the gaps were, but we kept it rolling. Um, Tudor did a really good job into [Passo] Giau to keep the gap open, and then yeah, Michael [Storer], Giulio [Ciccone], and I committed to keeping it rolling,” said Gee-West.