‘Every new day in pink is a bonus’ is how Bahrain Victorious sports director Franco Pellizotti says the team management are viewing Afonso Eulálio‘s options on maintaining his current lead in the Giro d’Italia.
Eulálio, 24, seized the overall lead in dramatic fashion on stage 5‘s rain-lashed finale of the Giro d’Italia, despite crashing late on. After coming through the flat stage to Naples on Thursday unscathed, he goes into the crunch stage on Friday to the Blockhaus with a considerable lead of 2:51 over stage 5 winner and breakaway companion Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Eulálio has never led a WorldTour race before – although he did lead the Volta a Portugal for several days back in 2024 – and this is only his second Giro d’Italia. His lack of experience and reference points makes it very hard to predict how long he will remain in pink.
While Eulálio is still young, only in his second year in a WorldTour team, and after a background in MTB, he is very much in the process of discovering what he can do; that process is a two-way street, Pellizotti said. Given he’s a relative newcomer to both road racing and Bahrain Victorious, the team is also finding out what his potential is as well.
“He has everything ahead of him, everything to discover,” Pellizotti said. “He did a great job in the Volta a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…