Bahrain Victorious and pink jersey Eulalio admit they were a little too enthusiastic heading into Blockhaus

Afonso Eulalio retained the pink jersey as expected on Blockhaus during the Giro d'Italia on Friday. The Portuguese rider lost just under three minutes to Jonas Vingegaard, but still holds a fairly comfortable overall lead heading into the second weekend.

"It was a really long stage, with a very hard and steep final climb, and a lot of wind," Eulalio said via his team's website. "The team did a perfect job throughout the day, for almost 250 kilometres, and it was also important to have Damiano" — Caruso — "with me in the final."

"In the end, we survived and kept the Maglia Rosa, which was our objective for the day. In the end, I think all the teams and all the riders know that Jonas is one of the favourites to win the Giro and that he can take the pink jersey, but we have to keep fighting and try to stay in the jersey until the rest day," said Eulalio, who is still hoping to be wearing pink on Tuesday for the time trial.

Sports director Franco Pellizotti was also proud of his riders. "In the end, it was a hard stage, but there was no big breakaway and the team managed the race well. Maybe at some points during the stage we were a little too excited when we were pulling at the front — but that also shows the team was happy to be in this position."

"Afonso did a great climb. Maybe he went a little too deep and then dropped when he was already red. If he had followed his own pace a bit earlier, maybe the gap could have been smaller, but in the end we are happy. He is still new to this type of race and to riding with the leader's jersey, and I believe he understood a lot for the next days."

"I think we did a great race, and Afonso also did a good climb. We lost around three minutes to Vingegaard and a bit less to the other two riders on the podium, but compared to some of the other GC contenders — like Ciccone, Arensman and others — he did well. He also finished ahead of riders like Mas and Van Eetvelt. In the end, we are happy."