'Things happen for a reason' — Vierhouten fights back tears as Bahrain Victorious win poignant pink jersey

For Bahrain Victorious, day five of this Giro d'Italia could not have gone better. After a completely extraordinary finale, the team's young Portuguese rider Afonso Eulalio claimed the first pink jersey in the team's history. Sporting director Aart Vierhouten spoke to TNT Sports in front of the cameras — and struggled to hold it together when the subject turned to what happened on this same date, exactly five years ago.

It had been a day that asked everything of both riders in the break. Eulalio and stage winner Igor Arrieta of UAE Team Emirates-XRG both crashed in the finale, and Arrieta compounded matters by missing a corner in the closing kilometres after losing his line on the slippery road.

Yet he still crossed the line first. Bahrain Victorious did not leave empty-handed, however: Eulalio took the pink jersey, with a lead of almost three minutes over second-placed Arrieta in the general classification. GC contenders Thymen Arensman, Egan Bernal and Jonas Vingegaard are over six minutes back.

"Tomorrow morning we're going to wake up to this pink dream," Vierhouten told TNT Sports at the finish, with Eulalio — now also leading the white young rider's classification — standing alongside him. The Dutch sporting director had followed the entire finale from his car directly behind the Bahrain Victorious riders, watching the chaos unfold at close quarters.

Then the presenter mentioned what no one in the Bahrain Victorious camp had forgotten: exactly five years ago today, on 13 May 2021, the late Gino Mäder won a stage of this race for the same team. Mäder, the hugely talented Swiss climber, passed away in June 2023 following a crash on the descent of the Albula Pass during the Tour de Suisse. He was 26 years old. He will never be forgotten by the team for whom he rode his final race.

"I wasn't even a member of the Bahrain Victorious staff back then, but I was part of the wider cycling family," Vierhouten began — already visibly struggling to keep his composure.

The Dutch sporting director composed himself and spoke about what the day had meant to him. "Things happen for a reason. I had my lucky stone in my pocket today. This is very special. There is not a single day that this team forgets Gino. He is with us every day," Vierhouten concluded.

The official Bahrain Victorious team post captured the sentiment perfectly, closing with a simple hashtag: #RideForGino.