Derek Gee-West's (Lidl-Trek) attempt to eclipse Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) with several last-ditch attacks ended in a sprint on stage 20's summit finish at Piancavallo at the Giro d'Italia.
The Canadian wasn't able to pull back the time he needed to move up from fifth to fourth overall, but he said there was nothing left to lose with the three-week race concluding in Rome on Sunday.
"It was super hard. Right from the start, the pace was crazy fast, and if I had any hope of moving into fourth, I had to try to attack Arensman." Gee-West said.
"Jonas Vingegaard had already done his thing. I tried to go early and was working well with Jai [Hindley]. The Ineos guys were strong and clawed their way back in the end, and I just had to suffer in a sprint."
On the final climb of Piancavallo, Vingegaard made his winning move with 11km remaining on the 14km ascent. Once he was out of sight, Gee-West, Hindley, and Gall settled into a rhythm, but Arensman's teammate Egan Bernal was able to drag them back to the trio.
It ended in a sprint with Gall taking second, Hindley third and Gee-West fourth on the day, Arensman four seconds back in fifth.
It was not enough to see any changes to the overall classification, where Vingegaard has all but sealed the overall title by 5:22 ahead of Gall, 6:25 ahead of Hindley, 7:02 ahead of Arensman, and 7:56 ahead of Gee-West.
Gee-West has finished ninth overall at the 2024 Tour de France and fourth overall at the 2025 Giro d'Italia, and went into this edition hoping for a podium performance.
Although he had a good start to the season, he said he didn't have adequate preparation for the Giro d'Italia and was nonetheless grateful to have finished with a top placing.
"Yeah, I think there are two ways to look at it; fourth last year, fifth this year. I'm not stoked on that, but at the same time, I'm grateful to be here. I had a really shit prep. I missed training camp and then, to be honest, after stage 2, after that crash, seeing how a lot of guys came out of that ... just to get through that and finish the race, and chalk up a GC result, even if it's not the one I want, I'm pretty happy with that," Gee-West said.
He proved to be one of the strongest climbers in the race, finishing eighth on Blockhaus, sixth at Corno alle Scale, fifth at Cari, second at Alleghe and fourth on Piancavallo. He was also fifth in the decisive 42km time trial into Massa, which ultimately led to his fifth-place overall at this Giro d'Italia.
"I don't know if I always have to wait for the third week to have good legs, but maybe that's something we could work on. Just to get to that level at any point in the race. I'm super happy with that," Gee-West said.
"I started the year with a new team, and everything was going great and had a really good UAE Tour, and then the prep obviously wasn't going great, and so this is super nice to chalk up a fifth place.
"I think it's also motivational because to go fourth and then fifth is super frustrating, so it's something to aim for in the future. I was really happy with my level at the end of the race."
Gee-West said he was pleased with Lidl-Trek's performance at this Giro d'Italia, as Giulio Ciccone won the mountains classification and they look to Jonthan Milan to conclude the Grand Tour with a sprint victory on Sunday.
"We got super close a couple of stages, and it is super frustrating to miss out on them, but today [Giulio] Ciccone won the mountain classification, we have fifth on GC and hopefully tomorrow we can win in Rome."
