Following his revelatory attacking displays at the recent Giro d’Italia, Canadian neo-pro Derek Gee has signed a contract extension with Israel-Premier Tech through the end of the 2028 season.
The 25-year-old made his Grand Tour debut in Italy last month and was one of the stars of the Giro, making the breakaway seven times and taking four second places and two fourth places along the way.
He finished second in the mountain, points, intermediate sprint, and breakaway classification, also winning the prize for the race’s most combative rider in Rome. His Israel-Premier Tech team have acted quickly to hand him one of the longest contracts in cycling, with only UAE Team Emirates talent Juan Ayuso currently on a deal to the end of the 2028 season.
“It was an incredibly easy decision for me to sign this new contract; I know another five years is a long time, especially in the cycling world, but this team feels like home,” Gee said.
“The relationship I have with the riders, staff and management, and the direction I can see the team going from a performance standpoint, is something I’m incredibly keen to be a part of for the long term. It also gives me the stability to take a step back and try new directions as a rider that may not have even been something I was considering before the Giro.
“The Giro was about as far from what I expected as it gets going in, but it’s been sinking in the last week, the rides that I had there. I’m really happy to be able to show why the team had confidence in me with that calendar and put that on paper with those results.”
Gee is part of a strong Canadian contingent at the team, which is owned by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams and co-sponsored by Canadian company Premier Tech.
He joins Hugo Houle, Michael Woods and Guillaume Boivin in the racing squad, while the team also counts Canadians among the backroom staff in performance director Paulo Saldanha, directeur sportif Steve Bauer, and several coaches, soigneurs, and mechanics.
“I’ve known Derek since he was a boy, winning local races in Canada, as he accompanied his father (against whom I competed in Masters races) to weekend bike races,” Adams said.
“Israel-Premier Tech is Derek’s natural home, as it is for the other aspiring Canadians, and Israelis, that we have in our development pipeline. With Derek, we are JUST. GETTING. STARTED. We expect…
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