Derek Gee

Biography

After making his Olympic debut in track cycling, Derek Gee has developed into a top tier road cyclist. He earned himself global recognition with his outstanding performance at the 2023 Giro d’Italia, where he was the literal breakout star. Gee made breakaway attempts in seven stages, resulting in four runner-up finishes and two fourth-place finishes. He placed second in the points classification and received the award for combativity in his first appearance in a cycling Grand Tour. 

Gee made his Tour de France debut in 2024 and posted a third-place finish in the ninth stage. He had missed two months of racing earlier in the year after breaking his collarbone in a crash in Belgium. In June, he had won the third stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné and finished third in the general classification. 

Gee won back-to-back national titles in the individual time trial in 2022 and 2023. In 2021, he had placed third the road race and time trial at the national championships. He began competing in road cycling professionally in 2021 and since 2023 has been a member of the Israel-Premier Tech team alongside fellow Team Canada Olympians Michael Woods, Hugo Houle, and Guillaume Boivin. 

Leading up to his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Gee had been a key contributor to Canada’s rise in the men’s team pursuit in track cycling. A career highlight came at the 2019 UCI Track World Championships where the team exceeded expectations by racing for the bronze medal against an experienced Danish squad, ultimately finishing fourth overall. In Tokyo, Gee was a member of the men’s team pursuit that finished fifth for Canada’s best Olympic result in the event since 1932. He also raced with teammate Michael Foley in the Madison.  

As a young teenager, Gee had competed in both road and track cycling. He qualified for the 2013 Pan American Junior Championships in track cycling but was a year too young to compete. Disappointed not to be able to represent Canada, he decided to focus on road cycling, going on to compete in the junior division at the 2014 and 2015 UCI Road World Championships. 

At age 18, he decided to leave competitive cycling behind to attend Queen’s University. But he soon realized that cycling was his passion and after a year of being in school full time, he participated in a training camp at the velodrome in Milton, Ontario. He went on to win silver in the omnium at the 2016 Canadian Championships and was named as an alternate for the 2017 UCI Track World Championships. 

Gee joined the UCI World Cup circuit for the 2017-18 season, which included a silver medal in the team pursuit in Milton in December 2017. In April 2018, he competed in track and road cycling at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, winning bronze in the team pursuit. In November 2018, he stood on another World Cup podium, winning team pursuit bronze in Berlin. A silver medal followed in January 2019 in Cambridge, New Zealand. At the 2019 Pan American Championships, Gee won gold in the team pursuit and the omnium, breaking out of a three-way tie for first in the latter during the fourth and final event.   

A Little More About Derek

Getting into the Sport: Started cycling competitively at age 9, picking up track cycling at age 13… His father was a road cyclist and they had an ongoing competition to see who would win a national title first; in 2014 his dad became national road race champion in the 50+ age category but since then Derek has won more than a dozen national titles on the road and the track… Outside Interests: Completed two years of a Bachelor of Science degree at Queen’s University before taking a break in 2019 to focus on Tokyo 2020… Would like to pursue a career in high performance sport management or coaching… Enjoys birding, which he discovered while looking for a low-energy hobby; documents and photographs the birds he sees to learn more about them… Odds and Ends: Favourite motto: Ain’t nothing to it but to do it!…