"Jonas is Jonas; we can only follow him... he accelerates, we get dropped": Afonso Eulálio aims to defend in Aosta

Gone are the days when that slight, wide-smiled kid would show up at press conferences or speak to journalists shyly. Afonso Eulálio, who remains at the top of the general classification of the 2026 Giro d’Italia after 13 days of racing, now speaks with fluency and a natural ease whenever there’s a microphone in front of him.

Today the young rider from Figueira da Foz had his calmest day since putting on the Maglia Rosa. The peloton rolled at a steady but low pace, allowing the breakaway to gain a 12-minute lead.

Bahrain - Victorious controlled the peloton for most of the 189 km stage and brought the race leader safely to the finish line, accompanied by all his general classification competitors.

"A recovery day? No, the rest day is in two days, but today was a quieter stage, although a long one," Eulálio told reporters after the stage. "In the end, we kept the Maglia Rosa, which is the most important thing," he reflected on the day in the saddle.

Nonetheless, it turned into a tough day due to the heat, which certainly had an impact on the riders’ physical condition. Eulálio smiled and recalled that "on the day I put on the Maglia Rosa there was a breakaway, it rained all day, it was very cold and it was a very hard day for our bodies. And now we’re racing in 30 degrees."

The Portuguese rider stressed that whether it’s rain, cold, or intense heat, these are conditions professional cyclists must be used to, as it’s part of the job, and that the aftereffects of an extreme day must be carefully monitored.

"It certainly changes our bodies a lot. We try to do as much as possible with the performance staff, with the nutritionists, with everything we can do."

All eyes are now on tomorrow’s stage, the brutal stage from Aosta to Pila, in which Eulálio will have to give his best to defend the race lead, given his advantage of only 33 seconds over the big favorite Jonas Vingegaard.

It could be a decisive day for his ambitions in the fight for the general classification, considering it’s an extremely tough stage featuring a profile with consecutive climbs:

"It’s going to be a very hard day. We start with a very long climb and finish with a very long climb. But we’ll see. I hope to have good legs tomorrow and I’ll just keep fighting."

The chances of fighting and resisting Vingegaard are, however, limited, as he is undoubtedly the strongest climber in this Giro, as Afonso Eulálio was keen to emphasize.

"Jonas doesn’t need to make a big attack. Jonas is Jonas. I think the only rider who can beat him is Pogacar… and Pogacar isn’t here. We can only follow him. When he accelerates, we get dropped. That’s how it is. We fight behind him," the Portuguese climber concluded.