PRESS CONFERENCE - Afonso Eulálio on Giro d'Italia breakthrough, Tour de France debut, Damiano Caruso...

The 2026 Giro d'Italia was a breakthrough moment in the career of Afonso Eulálio. The Bahrain - Victorious rider led the race for nine days, won the youth classification, and was one of the figures of the race. CyclingUpToDate discussed the race with Eulálio in a post-Giro press conference in which he broke down the race and his future ambitions.

Eulálio spoke thoroughly of the preparation he had for the race and how that affected his decision to aim for the overall classification after getting the pink jersey in a breakaway on stage 5 to Potenza.

The 24-year old carried the maglia rosa for almost half of the Corsa Rosa, surviving a few mountain stages and the time trial, whilst Jonas Vingegaard came closer. Despite often being in a position where logic would dictate that he would race defensively, he would do otherwise. In the end, he finished sixth in the overall classification, and won the youth classification ahead of Visma's Davide Piganzoli.

Eulálio has explained his reasons as well as his partnership with Damiano Caruso. He revealed that he will aim for the Autumn classics and the World Championships later in the year; and that in 2027 he is set to make his Tour de France debut. In 2028, it is possible that he aims for a Giro-Vuelta double, again thinking about the overall classification.

Several other topics have been discussed in a press conference hosted by Bahrain - Victorious this morning.

Answer: Yes, I really wanted the stage a lot, we ended up winning the stage with Alec and I ended up being very happy in the same but of course I wanted the stage a lot, at the end of the turn things ended up going so well in such a big way and wearing the pink jersey, ending up with the white jersey and being able to win it at the end of the turn and make it to the top 10. I think it's not bad at all to have the victory and I still have a lot of years to go to try a victory in a big stage.

A: I remember last year in the World Championships they said I had the second best result, only Rui Costa had done better in the World Championships so things have gone well. We have worked very well, last year I was top 10 in the World Championships, this year I was top 10 in the Giro d'Itallia and of course the results are very good and above all we have to keep working and try to make the best moments.

A: Look, I don't really know, I was expecting a lot because it was something new for me It's quite different when you're in a Giro and you fight for a stage and you can get to the group stage the next day and you're constantly fighting to get to the front, and getting to the front is not just fighting in the last climb you have to fight every day.

All the climbs, all the descents, all the crucial points It was all new for me, I was doing my job, we were doing everything perfectly as a team we were trying to do everything perfectly, in all the aspects, we were giving everything to each other and above all, we were trying to do our best and I think it was a bit like last year, it was getting better and better. Last year I also felt pretty good in the last week, but this year I had the opportunity to race in a different way and I think it was getting better towards the end of the Giro.

A: João is João, no If I had his legs, I would have done much better João is one of the best cyclists ever, not only from Portugal, but always he's one of the few who can often compete with Jonas [Vingegaard] as well. João has no comparisons, and I'm sure he will give us a lot of joy until the end of the year.

A: First of all, I want to thank him I had a lot of good moments with Joaquim Andrade. It's always hard to guess what would happen If it wasn't for the breakaway, I wouldn't have won time. But of course I felt more tired because of the blockhouse and I needed a few days to recover It ended up being good to have the rest day and the time trial, they were two shorter days and I was able to breathe a little.

But I don't know, and for the future I will continue to work I will continue to do my results. Above all, I like to do the classics and I'm sure I'll be fine. At least, I'll do my best and fight for it. And then, in a grand tour, who knows? In the future, I don't know I'm probably only going to do a grand tour [for GC] in two years But who knows?

A: I'd rather be on the podium than not be there I'd rather be there every day with a pink jerseyand a white jersey. But in the end, a grand tour makes a lot of difference because I had to go to the podium every day, I had [doping] control every day I had hundreds of interviews every day - we always had interviews for Eurosport. We had press conferences at the end, we had televisions, we had a lot of interviews too...

And of course, when I got to the hotel I ended up getting a massage, physiotherapy, I had all those things and when I went to dinner I would eat alone or with our nutritionist or with a colleague who would wait for me. The others had already arrived, had dinner and were already resting and since I spent more time there I ended up arriving quite late and I didn't have the same recovery time. But the team always ended up trying to support me and also the fact that when you're fighting you have to be more controlled by the team. So I ended up waking up at 6 a.m. and then days I would go to dinner at 9 p.m.

Of course, all together, it ended up taking more recovery It ended up making me more stressed I thought I was going to have dinner at 9 p.m. and ended up having dinner at 10 p.m. Other days I would think I was going to sleep until 9 a.m. and I was awake at 6 a.m. So it ended up changing a lot of things But above all, I think I recovered quite well and things ended up going well.

A: He is a very simple person We didn't talk about normal things about the race, about our future about our plans for the future. We talked about cycling, we talked about our nutrition which we ended up using so we ended up exchanging some ideas. But we talked about the general things sometimes, as a joke - I was in the fight with Piganzoli to fight for white and sometimes, as a joke, I would tell him to put Piganzoli working at the beginning of the stage to help me. But above all, we tried to be relaxed and have some more relaxed conversations and not so crazy.

A: Of course I wasn't prepared to race for the overall we had already talked about it but above all I think it was mostly a joke they tried to race for the overall but we never really thought of doing it it was always a bit of a joke. Of course losing our leader (Santiago Buitrago, ed.), things ended up being a little different and we weren't prepared but as soon as we lost our leader. Opportunities opened up and we talked about it right away what were the stages at the beginning because at the beginning we were more focused on protecting Santiago and later I would race for my stages, but as soon as we lost opportunities opened up and we analyzed the initial course and I talked to the team I said I wanted stage 5.

It was a stage that was quite good to me and the team said yes we analyzed everything in detail the arrival, the start, the whole stage and we ended up being very focused on that stage so I ended up going all-in. Things ended up going almost perfectly for us we just needed the same stage victory and of course after that it was impossible not to try to race for the overall given the time I had in advance.

Of course I wasn't going to race for victory, mentally, but things ended up happening and I knew I was ready not like last year, we had done everything perfect ideal preparation so it was more or less a why not.

A: This year in two weeks I'm going to do Switzerland (Tour de Suisse, ed.) just to be with Lenny [Martínez] and [Antonio] Tiberi just to support them. Because I'm going to be stopped this week next week I'm going to take it very slowly and then I'm going to do Switzerland 100% just to help them. I'm going to get there with a lot of delay just to support them and I'm going to do this race thinking about the nationals because it ends up in a more aggressive way and I think it will help me to get to the nationals .

And in the nationals I'm going to do the time trial. I know it will be very difficult to win it, almost impossible but just to train because to train against the clock is a bit difficult, we never have closed roads you can't train 100%. And let's say that having a race against the clock, having the nationals is the ideal place to do a perfect training because we are simulating a race and we have closed roads, we have cars, bikes we have everything perfect so it will be a little bit like that. In the nationals I will try to give my best knowing that I'm not at my best but I think I can do something.

A: Let's say that it's my way of racing and my directors are getting to know me and my teammates. Of course they would be happier if I raced more conservatively but they are getting to know me they know how I like to race they know that I make some mistakes in some moments, they know that I attack but it's my way of racing it won't change sometimes. It's a bit let's say that the day I had the crash I attacked, I attacked because it was in my plans to do that. In my head I had analyzed everything, the team wasn't 100% agree because we never thought that the stage would come [back to the peloton].

We thought it would come but I had already studied everything, the team never thought that it would come let's say the group of favourites to race the stage and things ended up going like this. The team is sometimes calmer but it's my way of racing, I like to attack a lot, when I don't have legs I can't do it so I think that sometimes with my growth I will start to calm down a bit.

A: Yes, that stage I think was a madness inside the car I remember when I was getting to the cars and getting to the front I had my car there I was in the front so I had my car in front and I remember when my directors arrived they told me to calm down that I was full of pain, but that I was fine that I didn't push myself I just needed to breathe a little and I was back in front. The biggest problem of all was that it was a very fast race but I had the perfect team with me so I managed to get to that final climb so I could race the stage, but of course if I had calmed down a bit I would have been happier.

A: Look, I had already renewed in December. I renewed a long time ago, things were already aligned, I had already had a lot of proposals last year in the World Championships and things were like that, we agreed to stay in the team as things are going pretty well, they are working pretty well with me. Above all they don't bother me a lot we are working little by little, now they know me pretty well they know that I make a lot of mistakes they know that I have to learn a lot they know that I am well physically above all.

We have to work perfectly we have to do things little by little and they don't demand a lot and above all. I think everything is fine speaking of the contract I think things are being aligned to be improved and to add a year or two I don't know but I am not too worried, my agency and the team deal with everything they inform me later and I just say yes or no.

A: Things work like this inside the teams we share our prize money and the prize money are not only shared with us [the riders], they are also shared with the staff. We share everything and then we share with the cyclists that are in the race. The cyclist is basically just a staff and then it's divided by everyone. And yes I think the prize money is not even 10.000€, and then of course you end up with other prize money.

I think I would have more to do, more criteriums, but we chose to stay home and rest and of course there is more prize money but I don't really care about that.

A: In my head and I think in the team's head and the plans I think it will change a lot this year. I will focus on the classics to the end of the year, for next year I think I will do the Tour and it's one of the best races in the world. Not everyone wants to do it, I will do the Tour 100% relaxed and I will try to support my leaders. I will do my best and in two years maybe I will do the same [as in the Giro] but we are talking about one thing for the year in two years... Plans change a lot.

This year I know I will do the classics at the end of the year I will be focused on one-day races and I will continue to work. I will continue to work on the high mountains maybe in two years.

A: Yes, the European championships [too]... Let's see what I can do with the team and the national team. I know that the World Championship will be in Canada after the classics so I think I will be able to do both.

A: The Giro is the Giro and for me I will never forget this Giro. The future you cannot ask me because I don't know about my future, we will see me and the team we continue work we will do our best I cannot tell you my future.

A: Look we will do our best we will continue work perfectly I don't know, probably I go more motivated, I believe more in me now also the team believe a lot before in me we just continue work and we will see my future.

A: Look for sure changed something. At the moment I don't feel so much I like to stay calm and relax I just like to enjoy my life, we will see in the future what will change.

A: I think that during the race nothing changed because we have been together for almost two years last year I did more than half of my schedule with him. And this year half the year we were together, I had more time with him than with my family so I think it didn't change anything. We continue to do what we did before we continue to enjoy our life we continue to ran together and above all it was that I had already prepared the Giro with him. I had already raced in the UAE with him, I had already been with him preparing the Giro; in the stage before stage 5] and after we were basically preparing everything perfect together and I think we prepared it perfectly. Because sometimes they ended up racing in an almost perfect way for us.

A: Mainly in the climbs when I was a little alone that changed a lot because if you are alone, not only because of the suffering, but if you are alone in the middle of a climb it ends up being a little bad for the head because you are there alone and you think you are going to lose everything, and being there on my side I end up bearing a lot. But of course during the whole race in moments of more tension in moments when we are fighting for position... It depends, in many moments during the race, when you are reading the race, in moments when he goes for the breakaway...

It's not just because of him even for me it's things that change a lot in the race in our races it's not just getting to the last climb and giving our best, we have a lot of important moments in the race, a lot of key moments and we have to be ahead in those moments and having him there helps me and facilitates my work. Because I'm ahead with him and it's like I say it facilitates my work to be with him.

A: When I was leading the Vuelta a Portugal I never imagined that because I never imagined that I would go to the World Tour. During the Volta a Portugal my agent had told me that he already had some teams with interest but I never imagined that it would be a World Tour team, I thought it would be a Pro Continental team or a Spanish team. And when they told me about the World Tour I thought how is it possible. But I never imagined because I never imagined that I would race in the World Tour so it was impossible to imagine that I would wear the pink jersey and end up with the white jersey in the Giro.

A: What makes things very complicated for the cyclists of the Vuelta a Portugal is that we end up not racing much abroad the Portuguese team ends up racing international races but all within the country so we end up not showing our value. I was lucky in my year that we ended up racing for the national team when I was under-23 I had some opportunities for the national team, and the following year Feirense made the effort to split the team when there were races in Portugal we split the team and we would race in Spain.

And we ended up doing some important international races and I ended up showing up in those races and closing the top 10 in international races outside of Portugal. I think that was the reason that I was able to leave and Feirense helped me a lot because the team was split and made huge efforts to race abroad. But at this moment I think that what doesn't help our teams is that we have a very focused schedules in Portugal. It ends up being very difficult to race abroad so it's a bit difficult to show our value outside of Portugal.

A: What I learned as a cyclist is that I'm not ready for a podium the level is still a bit high and I don't know, I have to gain experience, I have to be calmer, I don't know I don't know I think the things you learn in the high level are things that we can do during the race and in the future I will race in a different way. But it happens naturally, you don't say it but the body learns it.

A: Look, things ended up being relatively equal in the post-race - we had the podium, we had interviews we had control, and I remember that when I got to the hotel it was exactly the same. When I got to the hotel my colleagues were already having dinner and things ended up being a little bit like that, but I think in both moments I was completely calm. I don't know during the race you can't compare, it's very different in terms of level. Of course there is a level too but a Volta peloton there are 90 or 80 riders, 20 are dropping so it ends up being 50, 60...

And in the WorldTour there are 150 riders or more. And there are 150 to be in the front in all moments and that's it the ways of racing are very different from the Volta a Portugal and the Giro d'Italia.