'We were fighting like two dead people' - Eulálio in pink after 'crazy' Giro finale

Afonso Eulálio puffed out his cheeks and then smiled. “I can’t promise much in the days ahead, but we’ll see stage by stage,” he said in the mixed zone in Potenza. 

No matter what he achieves from here, Eulálio has already added something indelible to this Giro d’Italia by claiming the pink jersey after a finale that teetered between tension and absurdity.

The Bahrain Victorious rider and Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) were the strongmen from the break, and when they forged clear on the long climb to Viggiano, the script for the day looked preordained: the maglia rosa would fall to Eulálio while Arrieta would take the stage win.

That’s ultimately how it panned out, but only after both men had crashed in the closing kilometres. The hillside city of Potenza seems to fold upon itself like an Escher lithograph, and the sinuous road to the finish was made even more treacherous by persistent rain.

Arrieta was the first to fall with 14km to go, but the Spaniard caught back up when Eulálio came down with 6km remaining. Eulálio was alone in front again when Arrieta took a wrong turn inside the final 2km, but the UAE man battled his way back once more in the finishing straight. 

There were shades of Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed about this slugging match, with Arrieta eventually collapsing across the line as the stage winner, while Eulálio had the considerable consolation of moving into a surprise overall lead.

“It was a very crazy finish,” Eulálio smiled. “We thought we would fight for the win, but with the rain on the city circuit, it was very tough. In the end, we were fighting against one another like two dead people. It was a very tough day.”

A native of Figueira da Foz near Coimbra, Eulálio started his cycling life as a mountain biker before he was coaxed onto the road. The 24-year-old only turned pro with Bahrain last year, but he showed considerable signs of progress in his sophomore season.

Eulálio placed second on the toughest stage of the AlUla Tour in January and he drew further confidence from taking sixth in the reduced bunch sprint in Cosenza on stage 4. That show of strength encouraged him to try his luck in the break on the demanding, rain-soaked leg to Potenza.

“Today we had a cross in the agenda for him, so it’s not a coincidence he was in the break,” Bahrain sports director Aart Vierhouten said. “It was a hell of a stage for everybody who in the front, but also in the back with the coldness, with the rain, even with the hills.”

Neither the elements nor the terrain proved an issue for Eulálio, at least until the very final phases, when he was locked in that anxious battle with Arrieta. 

The instruction from the team car was to do his utmost to stay upright and 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,” Vierhouten said.

“Everything happened today, from the worst to the best, from the fall to the jersey,” Eulálio grinned. 

“I think this is not a dream, it’s just crazy. 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.”

In the overall standings, Eulálio carries a lead of 2:51 over Arrieta, while Giro favourite Jonas Vingegaard is some 6:22 behind. 

The Portuguese rider will expect to retain the maglia rosa on Thursday’s flat run to Naples, and he might well hold onto the jersey even in the face of a Vingegaard onslaught on the Blockhaus on Friday. “At the end of the week there’s a very hard stage,” Eulálio said. “We’ll see what comes.”