"He missed a call from the president" - Afonso Eulalio's Giro d'Italia fairytale reaches Portugal’s highest office as Cristiano Ronaldo question emerges

Afonso Eulalio’s Giro d'Italia has already gone far beyond the usual logic of a surprise Maglia Rosa run. The Bahrain - Victorious rider has survived the mountains, survived the time trial, held off Jonas Vingegaard by 27 seconds and now found himself at the centre of a growing national story in Portugal.

The clearest sign came on the rest day, when Eulalio’s phone rang from an unknown number. Like many people would, he did not answer.

It turned out to be a rather important missed call.

Speaking on TNT Sports during Stage 11, commentator Rob Hatch explained the moment that has added another surreal layer to Eulalio’s Giro rise. “He missed a call, quite literally, from the president,” Hatch said. “What a story that is! He can dine out on that more than the Maglia Rosa for a few years.”

Eulalio began this Giro as one of the outsiders in the general classification picture. Two years ago, as Hatch noted, he was still racing as a Portuguese domestic professional on a third division team. Now he is defending the Maglia Rosa against Vingegaard in the second week of a Grand Tour.

That sudden rise has not gone unnoticed at home. According to Record, Portuguese president Antonio Jose Seguro had tried to call Eulalio to congratulate him, while legendary former AC Milan footballer and current Benfica president Rui Costa has also been in contact.

Eulalio later addressed the missed call with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. “The president tried to call me and left me a message,” he said in quotes reported by Record. “I think I must be doing something right. These days, I have so many calls and messages that I didn't answer, and, a few hours later, I received the message.”

The story has already reached beyond cycling, and TNT’s coverage could not resist taking the Portuguese sporting link one step further. With Rui Costa already part of the wider reaction, Hatch joked that Cristiano Ronaldo might be the next name on Eulalio’s phone.

“He might be getting a phone call off Ronaldo soon, you never know,” Hatch said. “We know Cristiano is an avid watcher of the Giro d’Italia. If you are watching, pick up the phone, give him a buzz, mate.”

That line should not be stretched beyond what it is. There is no suggestion Ronaldo has contacted Eulalio. But the fact his name naturally enters the conversation shows how unusual this Giro run has become. Eulalio is no longer just a rider defending pink. He is now carrying one of the biggest Portuguese cycling stories of recent years.

The sporting core of the story remains his defence of the Maglia Rosa. Stage 10 looked like the day Vingegaard would finally take control of the Giro, with the 42km time trial expected to expose Eulalio’s weakness against the clock.

Instead, Eulalio limited the damage just enough. Vingegaard gained 1:57, but the Portuguese rider kept the jersey by 27 seconds.

Eulalio admitted afterwards that even he struggled to believe he had done enough. “The first moment I start to think it’s not true, what they tell me,” he told TNT Sports after Stage 10. “But in the last part they tell me two minutes, I have 30 seconds to keep the jersey, to keep fighting, but in the first moments they start to tell me this I don’t believe I did it.”

Stage 11 then gave him another day in pink, as Jhonatan Narvaez took his third stage win of the race for UAE Team Emirates - XRG ahead of Enric Mas.

For Eulalio, the Giro remains a daily fight. Vingegaard is still only 27 seconds behind, Thymen Arensman has moved into third overall, and the hardest mountain stages are still ahead. But the fairytale has already travelled a long way from the race road. When the president is calling and Ronaldo is being invoked on live television, the Maglia Rosa is no longer just a jersey. It is becoming a national event.