Afonso Eulálio and Bahrain Victorious had expected their time in the Giro d'Italia maglia rosa to end in Massa after the 42km time trial, but just as the Portuguese rider has done for the last week, his fight for pink continues.
Eulálio lost 1:57 to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), but the Dane also suffered during the long, straight and fast time trial on stage 10 and failed to take pink by 27 seconds.
Vingegaard raced in the mountains classification blue jersey and pulled it on again on the podium in Massa, the jersey weighing on his shoulders with an hour of extra duties, just as if he was wearing pink.
Eulálio pulled on the maglia rosa yet again and will wear it during Wednesday's hilly stage from Porcari near Lucca to Chiavari on the Ligurian coast. His fight goes on, at least for another day, but possibly until Saturday's high mountain stage to Pila in the Val d'Aosta.
"What I'm living now, what I'm living with this jersey, is beautiful. I just keep going for the GC. We just keep fighting," Eulálio said with pride.
"I spoke yesterday with my sports directors, and they asked me if I want to go for GC or if I want to stop and go for stages. I don't want to stop fighting. If one day, I don't have my best day, I won't lose anything, right? These last few days have been unbelievable for me; it's been crazy for me. I've enjoyed this moment."
Eulálio now understands the aura and power of the maglia rosa.
"I think you need to live it to understand, but it's unbelievable," he said.
"I think this was the first time I felt nervous before a bike race. Normally, I don't want to care so much about time trials. I just enjoy them. This time, I felt I needed to do something. It's the first time I felt nervous.
"Having the pink jersey helped me. I think it's given me some power in the last few days. Now we'll see what happens in the next few days."
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