Defiant Eulálio thrives in maglia rosa on Giro stage 9 battle: 'It's perfect, my Giro is done'

While Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) rocketed to his second consecutive summit finish victory, the Dane still has plenty of work to take the maglia rosa off the shoulders of the defiant Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious). 

After defending the maglia rosa on the slopes of Blockhaus on stage 7, Eulálio has grown in confidence. This was evident in the finale of stage 9 to Corno alle Scale when the Portuguese rider dug deep on the steep gradients inside the final 2km.

In his press conference, Eulálio was asked about the differences between the two summit finishes. 

“In the final, it was a steep 3km climb, but on the earlier part, you could save a lot in the bunch, I tried to save as much as I could,” said Eulálio. “In the last part, I went all-in. I think I recovered from the last days, and that was the difference with the Blockhaus.”

Eulálio also highlighted how the crash while fighting for victory on stage 4 impacted him on the Blockhaus stage, as well as the 244km distance of the stage. 

“Two days before the Blockhaus, I went in the break, and I crashed, and there was only a rest day in the middle before the Blockhaus. And the Blockhaus was too hard, it was a 200k stage after the crash and the breakaway, so I think I was going better here.”

In the end, Eulálio battled tooth and nail to the finish line, taking fifth on the stage, just 0:41 behind stage winner Vingegaard. Eulálio was delighted with his performance and the fact that he will spend the second rest day as leader of the Giro d’Italia. 

“It’s perfect, my Giro is done. It’s perfect to arrive on the rest day with the maglia rosa, and now it’s the rest day, and then we will see in the TT,” said Eulálio. 

Having moved into the race lead on stage 4 from the breakaway, the Portuguese rider has been thrown into the deep end, but he is swimming rather than sinking, with his limits yet to be realised. 

“I don’t know,” said Eulálio when asked what his limits are. “Look, I never imagined today I would arrive in the top five in the GC group of the favourites, it’s crazy for me, I don’t know what I can do.”

On the other side of the rest day awaits a 42km time trial. Eulálio will be the last rider to roll off the start ramp in the maglia rosa, with a lead of 2:24 over Vingegaard in second. 

“Tomorrow, I want to rest and enjoy with my team, no stress, and prepare the time trial,” said Eulálio.