“I just had to fight and fight” - Afonso Eulalio remains best of the rest after Jonas Vingegaard ends Giro d’Italia pink jersey dream

Afonso Eulalio finally lost the Maglia Rosa on the climb to Pila on stage 14, but the Giro d’Italia did not get the full collapse many may have expected. Jonas Vingegaard now has pink, a third stage win and clear control of the race, yet the Portuguese outsider who was never listed among the obvious podium favourites is still second overall.

That is the real measure of Eulalio’s Stage 14. His spell in pink is over, but he remains ahead of Felix Gall, Thymen Arensman, Jai Hindley, Giulio Pellizzari and the rest of the GC pack. After a day packed with climbing, heat and Visma | Lease a Bike pressure, Bahrain - Victorious’ surprise leader still came through as Vingegaard’s closest challenger.

Eulalio began the day defending a lead that always looked fragile against Vingegaard on one of the hardest mountain stages of the race. Visma controlled the stage, brought the breakaway back into range and then used Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli to shrink the favourites group before Vingegaard launched the winning move.

Eulalio cracked before that final acceleration, losing contact with the reduced GC group on the climb to Pila. The pink jersey was already slipping away by then, but the damage control mattered. By the finish, he had surrendered the overall lead, but not his place at the front end of the race.

“I don’t know what I can tell you about the climb, but the whole day was very hard,” Eulalio told Cycling Pro Net after the stage. “There was such a long climb at the beginning, then another long climb at the end, and the climbs in the middle were also very hard.”

He did not try to dress it up. Once the legs went, survival became the only target. “I suffered all day,” he continued. “I held on a bit, but on the final climb I lost contact with the main group quite early. After that, I just had to fight and fight all the way to the finish line.”

For more than a week, Eulalio had turned a surprise Giro lead into one of the defining stories of the race. He survived summit finishes, held off Vingegaard in the long time trial and carried pink deeper into the second week than many would have predicted.

Stage 14 finally changed the race, but it did not erase that run. Vingegaard now leads by 2:26, but Eulalio remains second overall and still holds the white jersey. “I was already expecting this moment,” he admitted. “Jonas is very strong. For me, it was just about fighting, fighting, and doing the best I could.”

That line fits the day. Eulalio could not stop Vingegaard taking control, but he still limited enough damage to keep the podium fight running through him. The white jersey now gives him another target, although he was careful not to speak as if that battle is already secure. “I don’t know,” he said. “There are other guys who are very, very strong. Even so, let’s see if it gives me strength like the pink jersey did.”

The next mountain tests will decide whether Eulalio’s Giro remains a podium story or gradually becomes a fight to defend white. For now, though, the rider who finally lost pink on Pila is still not drifting back into the pack. “Now I need to recover as much as I can over these two days and then fight again,” he concluded.