![\"Afonso](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/giroditalia2026stage5-afonsoeulalio-2-6a059b6d7efea.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The numbers now being discussed are on a completely different level. \u201cAt the moment there is an existing contract and we are negotiating a longer-term one,\u201d Intxausti said. \u201cAfter the Giro, however, we are talking about figures that are five or six times higher than those in his current contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giro breakthrough turns project into priority<\/p>\n
Eulalio\u2019s rise did not come from nowhere inside Bahrain – Victorious. Intxausti made clear that the team already believed in him before the Giro and had planned a longer route towards Grand Tour leadership.<\/p>\n
That belief is now being tested by the market. The Giro did not simply improve Eulalio\u2019s reputation. It turned him from a promising project into a rider with proven three-week GC value. \u201cLast winter, three WorldTour teams had already asked for information, but he wanted to stay at Bahrain, because they were the team that believed in him, taking him from a Portuguese Continental team to the highest level,\u201d Intxausti said.<\/p>\n
The loyalty remains important, but Eulalio\u2019s Giro has changed the reality around him. \u201cBut a rider\u2019s market value is dictated by the market itself,\u201d Intxausti added. \u201cAt the end of this season there will certainly be teams very interested in Afonso, willing to offer him a much better contract than the one he currently has.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eulalio spent over a week in the Maglia Rosa<\/p>\n
Bahrain plan suddenly accelerates<\/p>\n
Bahrain – Victorious did not begin the Giro expecting Eulalio to carry their GC hopes deep into the final week. Santiago Buitrago started as the team\u2019s general classification leader, only for the Colombian to crash and abandon the race.<\/p>\n
That opened the door far earlier than planned. \u201cThe team already had a four-year project for him: to create a solid rider for the Grand Tours and one-week races, but in the long term,\u201d Intxausti said. \u201cThat project involved doing a Grand Tour and gradually learning how to be a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giro forced the timetable forward. Eulalio took on the responsibility without the usual signs of a rider overwhelmed by sudden pressure. \u201cOn the first rest day, when they arrived in Italy, I spoke to Afonso and told him: \u2018A door has opened for you, to become the team captain and leader,\u2019\u201d Intxausti said. \u201cHe took on that role without any nervousness, which is rare in a cyclist with little experience, and that was when I understood he had what it takes to become a champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Afonso who finished the Giro is different\u201d<\/p>\n
Eulalio did not simply inherit a position after the breakaway that put him in pink. He defended the Maglia Rosa for long enough to make the peloton take him seriously, then kept himself high in the GC even when the race reached its decisive climbing stages.<\/p>\n
His final sixth place put him behind Jonas Vingegaard, Felix Gall, Jai Hindley, Thymen Arensman and Derek Gee-West, but ahead of riders such as Michael Storer, Davide Piganzoli, Damiano Caruso and Egan Bernal. For a rider still in the early phase of his WorldTour development, that result has changed the conversation around him.<\/p>\n
Intxausti believes the shift is not only sporting. \u201cThe Afonso who finished the Giro is different from the Afonso who started it,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is a rider of great value for the team and for the cycling world. He wore the Maglia Rosa, he was the best young rider, and the value of his image has increased significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agent also pointed to Eulalio\u2019s presence off the bike, with the Portuguese rider becoming one of the more popular figures of the race during his time in pink and white. \u201cThere are excellent riders who do not have this gift with the press,\u201d Intxausti said. \u201cHe, however, won over the public and the journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bahrain – Victorious now have a new GC asset to protect. Eulalio already has a contract through 2028, but his Giro has moved him into a different category. The rider who arrived in Italy as a long-term project left it as one of the most valuable young stage racers on the market.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The numbers now being discussed are on a completely different level. \u201cAt the moment there is an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[126871,45237,4985,20995,101,109609,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-632474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-afonso-eulalio","tag-bahrain-victorious","tag-cycling","tag-giro-ditalia","tag-sports","tag-transfers-negotiations","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}