Three times lucky for Aerts?

By Brecht Decaluwe in Gap

Mario Aerts was in the decisive escape for the second time during this Tour de France. Sadly enough, his second effort proved to be a second failure. "The first time (in Lorient, when Calzati won the stage), I thought that the peloton would catch us easily. Today I'm again unlucky that Quickstep started to work in the peloton."

There has always been some kind of rivalry between the two Belgian teams. They probably weren't chasing for the reason that there was a Davitamon rider in the break, but why did he think they led the pursuit? "I think that it was a strange decision of them," he answered. "Why do they try to bridge a gap of five minutes with only one team? You're wrecking your own team, with little chance on success as there was that climb in the final," Aerts said, disappointedly.

We then asked the Davitamon rider if he was feeling sad now that his second attempt proved to be unsuccessful: "You know that if you're riding in the Tour de France, the chance of success is very little," he answered. "During the last fifty kilometres I thought that it would be over for us. But after the fall of the three others, surprisingly I found that we could hold on quite well. Arriving at the last climb, my tank was empty and I had to let go of the others. Maybe that was because I've worked very hard to make a success of our escape. The peloton didn't allow us more than a minute for a long time." But hopefully for Aerts, he can find success in a third escape.