Ottawa cyclists Derek Gee and Mike Woods will be wheel to wheel at Paris 2024 Games

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As Derek Gee jumps back on his bike to begin his second Olympic Games in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, he will be well aware that it takes a village to raise a cyclist.

The village of Ottawa, that is.

Fresh — or maybe not so fresh — from an impressive ninth-place overall finish in the Tour de France last Sunday, there will be an all-out 32.4-kilometre sprint for the rider from Osgoode in the men’s Olympic time trial starting at historic Esplanade des Invalides.

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Gee will then celebrate his 27th birthday on Aug. 3 by joining Ottawa’s Mike Woods for the 273-kilometre road race.

Woods, the 37-year-old who finished fifth in the road race of the 2020 Tokyo Games, will be proudly wearing Canadian Olympic colours for the third time.

It’s remarkable, really, that the two Ottawa-area natives will be wheel to wheel in the global spotlight despite their different backgrounds.

After helping Canada to a fifth-place finish in the track cycling event at Tokyo 2020, Gee shifted gears to full-time road cycling.

He’s now riding a wave of momentum after his tour de force in his first foray through the Tour de France, the 3,500-kilometre race that ended last Sunday in Nice. The only other Canadians to have finished in the top 10 overall were Steve Bauer (fourth in 1998) and Ryder Hesjedal (fifth in 2010).

“Just to line up at the Tour de France this year was a dream come true,” Gee said in an Instagram post before heading to Paris to join his fellow Canadian Olympians. “After three weeks of the hardest racing of my life, I’m so proud to come away from my first tour in the top 10.”

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Forget about an extended rest to recover, though, as it’s back to business on Saturday.

This time, though, Gee will exchange his Israel-Premier Tech professional team shirt for a Team Canada one.

National team coach Nigel Ellsay says the fitness level of top cyclists is off the charts.

“It is somewhat normal,” Ellsay said in a telephone interview from Paris. “They can go four or five hours a day for three weeks, take five days off, and then go max for the time trial.”

Gee, who first turned heads on the pro cycling circuit after turning professional in 2023, is clearly on the rise. He was the breakout star of the 2023 Giro d’Italia, a top-flight three-week, 21-stage trek similar to the Tour de France, finishing second in four stages, fourth in two other stages and second overall in points.

“He showed that last year was not a fluke,” Ellsay said of the 2024 Tour de France. “In the biggest three-week race in the world, he showed consistency, grit, determination, the whole package. You can’t have a bad day when it’s a three-week race.”

Ellsay says the Ottawa community contributed in helping develop Gee into an elite rider.

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“We’re all super proud of what he has done, battling through the OBC (Ottawa Bicycle Club) to the OCA (Ottawa Cycling Association) to the national team and now as a professional.”

Indeed, Gee’s road began way back when with the OBC. Doug Corner, who is on the OBC Board of Directors, says Gee’s eyes were on the prize from the very beginning. At 10 years old, he told anyone who would listen that he wanted to win the Giro.

“He has been so focussed for so many years,” said Corner. “People say he’s an overnight sensation, but it has been 16 years in the making.”

Corner says the success of the Ottawa riders provides additional motivation for the OBC’s strong youth program. Whenever Gee and Woods are in town, they pay back for the time and money that OBC put in to support them, riding alongside the young cyclists.

“They are very supportive,” he said. “For the young cyclists, it would be like playing hockey with Wayne Gretzky or Guy Lafleur. It’s riding with their heroes.”

Woods is about to add another chapter to an intriguing athletic career that began as an elite runner.

He was forced out of the 2024 Giro d’Italia with concussion symptoms following a crash, and he has also battled through a stomach bacteria issue.

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Woods has since alternated his training between Chelsea and Europe, near his part-time home in Andorra.

“He’s a three-time Olympian and I don’t think he would have said that it would be on two wheels when he was younger,” said Ellsay, referring to the fact Woods broke the four-minute mile (3:57.48) as an 18-year-old runner.

After a series of devastating injuries forced him out of running, Woods happened upon cycling, discovering world-class abilities almost by accident.

He has since won a Tour de France stage, finished 55th in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics — riding with a fractured femur — and was just a bike length short of a bronze medal in Tokyo.

“It goes to show that Mike has the gift,” Ellsay said. “He’s definitely a dreamer and meticulous in how he plans it out, but he’s an inspiration because he follows through on his dreams.”

Ellsay credits Montreal-based cycling coach Paulo Saldanha for his work in helping turn an elite runner into an elite cyclist, but Woods is also full of praise for his roots in Ottawa.

“Were it not for the support of that community, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Woods said in a recent interview with OttawaSportsPages.ca. “And I know that’s the case for Derek, as well. I’m definitely proud to be from the national capital region.”

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While Saturday’s sprint event is pretty much all about raw breakaway speed on a mostly flat course — cyclists leave at 30-second intervals — the road race is a different animal.

Ellsay isn’t about to make any predictions about how Woods and Gee could fare, but he recognizes there could be a surprise or two.

Unlike major international professional races like the Tour de France, Olympic competition comprises a small field of 90 cyclists and there is no radio communication between cyclists and team crews during races.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer delivered a shocking victory in the women’s road race. She sprinted out to a lead so big that pursuers thought she had dropped out. After finishing, Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten celebrated as if she had won only to be told that Kiesenhofer had crossed the line 75 seconds earlier.

“This is a case for opportunists,” Ellsay said. “Anything can happen. With national teams, it’s different. Tokyo was a perfect example of that.”

kwarren@postmedia.com

X: Citizenkwarren

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