'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).
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) is much further back, at 6:22.
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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 memories of João Almeida's two-week stint in the lead in 2020 still linger amongst Portuguese fans, a performance that acted as a breakthrough result for Eulálio's compatriot, Bahrain Victorious management politely but firmly rejects any such comparisons for now. Rather, they are simply seeing each day in pink as a plus.
"We knew from before the Giro that stage 5 was a stage where he could do something," sports director Pellizotti told Cyclingnews. "And in the opening stages of the race, we'd been telling Afonso we didn't want him to lose time because we knew he might get the lead as well as go for the win, as often happens in the first week of Grand Tours."
"He's got a good advantage, but we'll see day by day. A leader's jersey is very important, and we have to honour it and defend it as best we can. So we'll just see what he can do, and the Blockhaus is certainly going to be a good test of that."
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 Catalunya supporting Lenny Martínez" - the Frenchman finished second overall - "and that makes us feel optimistic about what's to come in the Giro. But to tell the truth, every new day he spends in pink is a bonus."
After strong performances on the toughest climbs both in Catalunya this March and in the AlUla Tour this February, Pellizotti recognises that for Eulálio, the flat and time trials are where he'll likely suffer the most. The team therefore seem more confident about his chances of surviving on the Blockhaus compared to what he might do in the time trial in Tuscany on stage 10.
"A 42-kilometre TT is a lot, and time trials are really his Achilles heel," Pellizotti says. "So maybe we will lose the jersey before the chrono, maybe after it. But we'll see what happens, day by day."
"He's not under any pressure; we came to the Giro with him for stages. We'll see how he recovers after what was a very hard day on stage 5, first of all. For Afonso, there are no objectives, but there are no limits, either."
For the team, in any case, Pellizotti says, the lead is the perfect opportunity to regroup after the loss of their main GC leader, Santiago Buitrago, to the crash on stage 2.
"It's a way of helping people believe that everything is possible," Pellizotti says, "it helps us believe in what we do."
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