"It’s insane... I'm still getting used to it": Afonso Eulálio climbs with the best to successfully defend pink jersey

The first block of racing at the 2026 Giro d'Italia has come to a conclusion on the Corno alle Scale and nothing changes. At least for the Portuguese wonder Afonso Eulálio. The 24-year-old survives first mountain tests in the pink jersey, maintaining a solid two-minute buffer over Jonas Vingegaard who continues to melt Eulálio's lead day by day. But the first real rest day of this Giro belongs to Eulálio.

"First of all, it’s perfect to arrive at the rest day with the pink jersey," Eulálio said excitedly in an interview at the finish line. "It was one of the objectives for the team and we all fought for this."

Rather than waiting for a final blow, Eulálio definitely doesn't hide at the back of the peloton during stages, putting his pink jersey on full display day after day. And on today's summit, he even battled off some of the serious GC contenders to arrive fifth, 41 seconds behind Vingegaard. "About today — this top five is crazy. I fought with the favourites group, with the GC guys, and it’s insane... I'm still getting used to it."

"The whole team always helps me. All the guys do their job perfectly — all the staff, all the riders. In the final, Damiano was incredible. He was supporting me… he’s Damiano Caruso. In my first professional race ever [Circuito de Getxo in 2020], Damiano won this race... and now I have Damiano helping me. I don’t even have words for it."

Eulálio spent the last five days in pink jersey, but after the rest day, a real test of his abilities as well as his mental fortitude awaits with a 42-kilometer time trial. As you would've guessed - chrono is not the Portuguese climber's favourite discipline. The expectations are that current runner-up Jonas Vingegaard should not have problems erasing the 2:24 margin to Eulálio during the test against the clock, but there's still a lot in play for the young Bahrain - Victorious leader.

Even though this is already Eulálio's second Grand Tour participation, the experience is vastly different compared to last year's Giro when the Portuguese rider raced mostly under the radar, he explains:

"We live every day under full pressure. We finish the stage, then we have all the interviews, the trip to the hotel, dinner super late… after that we wake up, open the bags, close the bags again. So first of all we need to enjoy the rest day and take it super easy. We’ll try to find a good coffee, and after that we’ll check the route with the team and go for it in the time trial. It’s not the best discipline for me, but we need to fight."

Although his days in pink seem to be coming to an end, Eulálio will have many other opportunities to leave another mark at this year's Giro with several challenging mountain stages in second and third week of this year's edition. Is there any particular stage that ticks Eulálio's interest?

"Two weeks are still going to be very long. Some days already feel very long, and other days you can lose ten minutes. We just need to take it one day at a time."