After Jonas Vingegaard's emphatic victory on stage 7 of the 2026 Giro d'Italia to Monte Blockhaus, Lidl-Trek's leader Derek Gee-West and teammate Giulio Ciccone came through 1:42 and 1:40 behind the Dane.
Ciccone now lies in eighth place in the GC standings, 1:40 behind Vingegaard and 4:57 down on the maglia rosa, Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), while the Canadian champion has a 2:53 deficit to Vingegaard and is 6:10 behind Eulálio.
Gee-West is still optimistic for his overall chances since 1:10 of his disadvantage came from an untimely crash on stage 2 that left him chasing solo to the finish.
Keeping Vingegaard within fighting distance on Blockhaus was a solid day out for Gee-West.
"I'm happy with where I ended up," he told Eurosport directly after the stage. "I started coming back on guys at the end. I had to pace myself because it started so hard.
"It's not the best climb for it, because then you kind of end up in the wind, but no, I'm happy with where the legs were.
"I think every day I'm feeling a little bit better, so hopefully if that continues for two more weeks, then things will be looking good."
Frigid temperatures and blustery winds made the climb even more challenging.
"Yeah, it's brutal. You're already doing a 40-minute max, and then you've got to fight with guys to try and do a little bit less - it really just adds another element that after 240k you don't want to be thinking about, but that makes it an interesting climb."
Lidl-Trek hoped to get Ciccone another stage win on his home turf, but Gee-West said he wasn't able to help.
"This is his region, his climb, so at the end there I wanted to try and communicate with him, maybe give him a lead-out, but then in the last corner he took off, and there was nothing I could do."
In a brief interview, Ciccone denied that he would now be Lidl-Trek's GC leader.
"No, no, no," he replied to the question. "I want to win the stage, and I think today it's pretty clear. Now we will have to make a new strategy for the next few days."
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