Afonso Eulálio defended the Maglia Rosa after Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia, finishing fifth on the summit finish to Corno alle Scale after another solid day in the race lead. The Bahrain Victorious rider also retained the Maglia Bianca at the end of the first week of racing.
The 184km stage from Cervia to Corno alle Scale was one of the main climbing tests of the opening part of the Giro, with a long flat opening section before the race headed into the Apennines for the final climbs. The stage was raced aggressively from the start, with attacks from kilometre zero before a breakaway eventually went clear.
The race became more selective on the climbs towards Corno alle Scale, where the favourites for the general classification started to move in the final kilometres. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) tried to anticipate the GC riders with a late attack, but the main contenders closed the gap near the finish before Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma – Lease a Bike) made the decisive move inside the final kilometre.
Vingegaard won the stage, with Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) second and Davide Piganzoli (Team Visma – Lease a Bike) third. Eulálio crossed the line in fifth place, limiting his losses well on a climb expected to suit the pure climbers and keeping the Maglia Rosa ahead of the Giro’s second rest day.
Afonso Eulálio said:
“First of all, it is perfect to arrive at the rest day in the pink jersey. That was one of the team’s objectives and we all fought for this. About today, this top five is crazy. I was fighting with the favourite group, with the GC guys, and I don’t know, it’s crazy.
The whole team helped me again. All the staff, all the riders, everyone did their job perfectly. In the final, Damiano was there supporting me, and that is crazy. In my first race as a professional, Damiano won that race, and now I have Damiano Caruso helping me. I am living a dream.
Now, first of all, we need to enjoy the rest day because every day we live with full pressure all the time. We finish the stage, we have interviews, we travel to the hotels, we have dinner very late, then we wake up, open the bags and close the bags again. So first we need to enjoy the rest day, go super easy, maybe find a good coffee, and then we will check with the team and go for the time trial. It is not my best discipline, but we need to fight.
There are still two weeks to go, so I just need to go day by day. It is a long race. Some days are very long and in one day you can lose ten minutes, so we just need to continue day by day.
I also want to say thank you to all the Portuguese people, and to everyone supporting me around the world. I ask them to continue believing in me, helping me and motivating me.”
Franco Pellizotti added:
“The guys were really focused at the start to let the right breakaway go for us. It was not easy, but they did a good job from the beginning. When the breakaway went, luckily there were no GC riders there, and for us that was perfect. We let the breakaway go, then Decathlon started pulling and we had to stay on the wheel and wait for the last climb.
The guys did a great job around Afonso until the bottom of the final climb, and then in the end it was about his legs. This climb suited him very well and he did a very good result. I am not surprised by his performance today, but for sure I am super happy because we arrive at the rest day with the pink jersey, and we will also ride the time trial with the pink jersey.”
The Giro d’Italia now heads into its first rest day before resuming Stage 10 on Tuesday with a 42km individual time trial from Viareggio to Massa.
Meanwhile in Hungary the team wrapped up the Tour de Hongrie with Jakob Omrzel and Attila Valter 8th and 9th respectively in the general classification, as Nikias Arndt animated the final stage in the breakaway.
Valter was also awarded again as the best Hungarian rider.
