Domestique Debrief: Eulálio finds pink after Potenza's frozen chaos

The Italian took pink for the first time in his career on Tuesday evening in Cosenza, then woke Wednesday morning to freezing rain, hail, and the knowledge that his Lidl-Trek squad had been built for Jonathan Milan’s sprints, not for defending a jersey against a strong breakaway on a day when handling the bike required equal parts strength and prayer.

By the time the peloton rolled into Potenza, Ciccone had lost seven minutes and the jersey, his face betraying the cold and the resignation of a man who knew the script before the first raindrop fell.

“In the end, I think it was not the best day to wear my first maglia rosa,” Ciccone said after the finish. “It was one of the hardest and nervous days of my life on the bike, even for the weather, which was really crazy sometimes. I think we had everything, rain, everything, so I really suffered from the cold, and I think you can also see my face.”

He had gone to the front himself with 40 kilometres remaining, trying to close the two minutes he needed to keep pink, but the mathematics and the weather both conspired against him. Derek Gee-West, Lidl-Trek’s protected GC card, came forward briefly but soon dropped back.

Ciccone held no grudge. “I just said to say thanks to him because he’s here with big ambition of GC and he’s also helping a lot in the stage, give me support, food, rain jackets and of course, I cannot ask to him to pull or do something, because, like I say, he’s here to do something really good on GC,” Ciccone explained.

The Italian finished 7:11 behind the new race leader, his brief tenure in pink reduced to a single cold memory.

Read: Ciccone frozen out of pink in brutal Giro stage: ‘Not the best day to wear my first maglia rosa’

The pink jersey passed to Afonso Eulálio, a 24-year-old Portuguese rider who only turned professional with Bahrain-Victorious a year ago and had started his cycling life on a mountain bike near Coimbra.

He arrived in the WorldTour without dreaming of it, coaxed onto the road by people who saw something in him, and now he stood in Potenza with a 2:51 lead and a story that teetered between improbable and absurd.

The finale had contained everything: a crash for Igor Arrieta with 14 kilometres remaining, a crash for Eulálio with six to go, Arrieta taking a wrong turn inside the final two kilometres, and then both men staggering across the line like boxers who had forgotten which corner was theirs. “In the end, we were fighting against one another like two dead people,” Eulálio smiled afterwards. “It was a very tough day.”

The instruction from the Bahrain car in those final kilometres had been simple: stay upright, take pink. “We had nothing to win in the last part, and we had everything to lose, so we didn’t push the rider to go fast, because he knows what he’s doing,” said sports director Aart Vierhouten.

Eulálio managed that, just barely, and now leads a Giro he never imagined entering, let alone leading. “I think this is not a dream, it’s just crazy,” he said. “I never dreamed of arriving in the WorldTour. I started out just enjoying mountain bike, and then some people in Portugal asked me to start doing some road races. I only arrived in the WorldTour last year and now I’m in pink. I still have a lot to learn.”

Read: ‘We were fighting like two dead people’ - Eulálio in pink after ‘crazy’ Giro finale

Arrieta took the stage win, his first in a Grand Tour, after a comeback that belonged in a screenplay rejected for being too implausible.

The 23-year-old Spaniard catched Eulálio in the finishing straight and outkicked him at the line. “When I lose Eulálio in the last two kilometres, I was like, not possible,” Arrieta said. “But then I keep pushing. I see that he cannot go faster than me, and then when I take his wheel it’s like, fuck, maybe I can win one stage.”

He sat on Eulálio’s wheel until the closing 100 metres, then launched past for the win. “I was completely empty in the last kilometres, but I know Eulálio is also the same, and we both deserve the victory.”

The win was emotional for reasons beyond the drama of the finale. UAE Team Emirates-XRG had lost Adam Yates, Marc Soler and Jay Vine before the race even reached Italy, effectively ending their GC ambitions before the opening week concluded.

Arrieta had come to the Giro as a domestique, promoted to a protected card only after the casualties mounted, and now he had delivered the team’s second consecutive stage win after Jhonatan Narváez’s victory in Cosenza. “I don’t know what to say. I’m really happy to achieve this victory,” Arrieta said, visibly struggling to find words. “It means a lot for me because the crash, you know, all the teammates they went home. The Giro is special for me.”

The team’s reconfiguration from GC contention to stage-hunting mode has been swift and remarkably successful, a pivot that few WorldTour squads could execute with such efficiency.

Read: ‘I was completely empty’ - Arrieta takes breakthrough Giro victory with stunning late comeback

Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike spent the stage in survival mode, a strategy that paid off when the Dane reached the finish without incident, cold but unscathed. “It was a really extreme day with hail, rain and cold temperatures,” sports director Marc Reef said.

“Luckily we survived it in a good way. The riders are still shaking on the bus because of the cold.” Reef confirmed that Vingegaard had been well protected throughout the day, kept out of difficulty by teammates who positioned him correctly when the weather and the terrain made the race increasingly treacherous. “Jonas was well protected,” Reef said. “He was cold as well, of course, but he got through it in a good way. He said he felt really good.”

Visma had sent Victor Campenaerts into the early breakaway as insurance, a move designed to give them representation up the road in case the race split or became difficult to control. “We wanted representation in a bigger group to support later, so we were ready for every situation,” Reef explained.

The caution proved warranted on a day when crashes near the front of the race added to the nervousness behind, with both Arrieta and Eulálio going down during their battle for the stage. “We saw what happened in front, so of course you’re always a little nervous,” Reef admitted.

Vingegaard now sits 6:22 behind Eulálio, a deficit that should begin to narrow when the Giro reaches the Blockhaus on Friday, the first summit finish and the first real test of the GC contenders.

Read: Visma relieved after brutal Giro stage 5 conditions: ‘The riders are still shaking on the bus’

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Tudor rider Mathys Rondel collided with the back of the UAE team car after a puncture, shattering the vehicle’s rear window and raising questions when the damaged car appeared on the broadcast.

Rondel escaped serious injury and finished safely with the main group. Tudor sports director Matteo Tosatto explained that Rondel had been riding close behind the vehicle as part of a routine chase back through the convoy when the UAE car stopped suddenly. “Mathys was right behind the car because he was coming back. It is a typical race situation, the kind you see so often,” Tosatto said.

UAE sports manager Joxean Matxin Fernandez, who had been driving the car, confirmed that the vehicle had stopped because a Lidl-Trek car had halted ahead of them. “It was not only raining but also hailing. We were waiting until we could move again, and then suddenly a rider came from behind,” Matxin said.

The impact occurred at around 25 kilometres per hour, with Rondel’s helmet breaking the window. “The most important thing is that he is ok,” Matxin said. Rondel later reached the Tudor bus without visible damage and was seen warming down on the rollers.

Read: UAE and Tudor explain how Mathys Rondel broke team car’s rear window

Thursday brings a reprieve of sorts, with stage 6 offering the sprinters another opportunity before the Blockhaus. The 141-kilometre run from Paestum to Naples is short and largely uncomplicated, though the finale is anything but straightforward.

The final 400 metres take place on cobbles, with the road rising at an average gradient of 3%, ending on the iconic Piazza del Plebiscito. A U-turn with 400 metres to go adds tension before the road straightens towards the finish, setting up a finale suited to the most powerful sprinters.

Paul Magnier has won both sprint stages so far for Soudal Quick-Step and should relish this kind of punchy, high-power finish. Jonathan Milan brings a formidable lead-out train for Lidl-Trek, and Tobias Lund Andresen should welcome the tougher sprint for Decathlon CMA CGM.

Rain could make the finale considerably more treacherous, with wet cobblestones adding risk to an already technical run-in. After Wednesday’s frozen chaos, the sprinters will take what they can get.

Read: Giro d’Italia stage 6 preview - Cobbled sprint awaits in Naples