Canadian cyclist Derek Gee wins O Gran Camino race in Spain

Canadian cyclist Derek Gee won the O Gran Camino road race in Spain on Sunday, finishing with a 35-second edge over Italy's Davide Piganzoli.

The 27-year-old from Ottawa, riding for the Israel-Premier Tech team, moved into the overall lead of the five-stage race Friday after winning the individual time trial. And he stretched the lead from five to 37 seconds after finishing runner-up in Saturday's stage.

He was 24th in a large group in Sunday's final stage won by Denmark's Magnus Cort, who finished third overall.

It's the first overall stage race victory of Gee's career.

"It's pretty cool to win my first GC (general classification)," said Gee. "I love this race, I wanted to win it coming in — that was the goal — but winning races is not easy. I'm overjoyed."

Israel-Premier Tech teammate Hugo Houle, from Sainte-Perpetue, Que., was 41st overall after finishing 69th Sunday.

Gee credited Houle and his other teammates — Daniel Lima, Marco Frigo, Pau Marti, Simon Clarke and Jakob Fuglsang — for their help in securing the win.

"I was pretty stressed going into it but I couldn't have asked for a better team. I mean, I was at the front all day," he said. "They won every fight into all the important sectors, they controlled the breakaway and there was almost no stress because they were so good today. These are class bike riders."

Sunday's finale covered 165.3 kilometres, ending up in Santiago de Compostela after a difficult Category 3 climb with 20 kilometres to go followed by three challenging gravel sections.

Gee last led a race at the Criterium du Dauphine last June in France, spending one day in the yellow jersey coincided with an individual time trial.

Gee was promoted to Israel-Premier Tech's WorldTour squad from its academy