Iuri Leitão focuses on Olympic Games and dreams of Grand Tour debut: "Taking another step will be a goal"

The 25-year-old Caja Rural- Seguros RGA rider has a contract with the Spanish team until 2025 and was in the spotlight in the last edition of the Volta ao Alentejo, where he rode in the leader's jersey, took two second places, a fourth and finally closed out the decisive stage of the Alentejo with a victory.

"I realized that I entered the road season in good shape. The others came with more competitive experience, as they had done the Volta ao Algarve and other races. "It was better than I expected," he confessed in an interview with the sports newspaper O Jogo.

Although Iuri Leitão wore the leader's jersey, he was seen at the front of the peloton commanding the troops "The overall wasn't for me. The hardest stage was a selection and I was aware of my difficulties. The team had more options and that day was about working for my colleagues. It wasn't the first time I'd worked in the yellow jersey. I'm used to it, I'm happy to do it and I assume that the yellow jersey isn't a rank, it's just a symbol".

Of the huge Portuguese contingent in the international peloton, only António Morgado and Iuri Leitão have yet to make their debut in a Grand Tour, but while in Morgado's case it's understandable and will only be a matter of time, as he only joined the World Tour peloton this year with UAE Team Emirates.

The task of being able to take part in one of the three GTs is more complicated for Iuri: "Racing a Grand Tour isn't in my reckoning yet. Unfortunately, Caja Rural wasn't invited to this year's Vuelta a España, which would have been my only chance," but the young sprinter is not worried about this, but he is ambitious: "Who knows in the future. I've evolved a lot in these three years with Caja Rural and, if I continue to do so, taking another step will be a goal."

In addition to the Olympic Games, where he hopes to be present but he actually has tough competition in the UAE Team Emirates' Oliveira twins: "...The coach doesn't give us any [clues]" to who will be selected however. He will also be present at the Tour of Turkey in April and the Tour of Greece in May.