ProTeam Toon Aerts impresses in breakaway with the favorites, Lennert Van Eetvelt finishes a strong 13th in Stage 9 of the Giro

With 72 kilometers remaining, Aerts joined a counterattack together with Giulio Ciccone and Diego Ulissi. The move proved successful, as nearly 15 kilometers later the trio bridged across to the leading group. Aerts comfortably followed the moves, although that did not exactly make him popular among the others. “I hope they don’t take it personally,” Aerts defended himself. “We were racing tactically, they have to understand that. Today I was riding entirely in support of Lennert Van Eetvelt, and besides, I’m not exactly a climber…”

“When Ciccone went solo, that was my signal to continue at my own pace and stop fighting for the front. I managed to stay with those guys for a very long time, but I also had to make sure I didn’t go too deep. Once the peloton started closing in, I tried to recover for a minute and then do a bit more work for Lennert. Not that I could still do much, but still. I’m very happy with what we showed today. Because of the well-known circumstances, we’re down to only five riders here, but if we can race the way we did today, then we still have two beautiful weeks ahead of us.”

Van Eetvelt also looked back positively on the final stage before the rest day. “I briefly considered following Ciccone when he attacked. In the end I didn’t, but he lasted much longer than I expected,” Van Eetvelt explained. “Toon did go with him, and that was really impressive. Those final 25 kilometers of climbing were a serious effort, but the nature of the climb — with flatter recovery sections alternating with very steep ramps- suits me better than the long mountain stages. It means more punchy climbing. When our group caught Ciccone, I tried to squeeze out whatever I still had left. I just came up short of following the top ten riders, but I can’t be unhappy with my first part of this Giro.”

Picture: PhotoNews