Afonso Eulálio

Eulálio grew up in Figueira da Foz and came to road racing from mountain biking, riding for the São João de Ver club before switching codes in 2020. He progressed through the Portuguese domestic calendar rather than a WorldTour development squad, and took the under-23 national road race title in 2022. At Continental level he shared leadership with several other riders and rarely raced with a free role.

His first international win came at the Troféu Joaquim Agostinho in 2024, on the queen stage, and he finished second overall there. Fifth at the Vuelta a Asturias followed. At the Volta a Portugal he attacked on the Serra da Estrela with 13 kilometres to go, took the yellow jersey and held it for seven days, before losing time on the final mountain stage and the closing time trial to end up tenth overall.

The Volta a Portugal ride brought WorldTour interest and he signed with Bahrain Victorious for 2025, through the agency that also represents Tadej Pogačar. He rode the Giro d'Italia as climbing support for Antonio Tiberi, his first Grand Tour. Team director Gorazd Štangelj said before the start that they did not yet know how far he could go. He was third on the opening stage of the Vuelta a Burgos in August.

He was sixth overall at the Tour of Britain, with fourth on stage five. At the world championships in Kigali, on a course of 267.5 kilometres and more than 5,500 metres of climbing, he did not chase when Pogačar went clear and rode his own pace instead, coming through with the third group on the road to finish ninth. Mechanical trouble and a crash had wrecked his ride at the previous year's Worlds.

He climbs best on long sustained gradients and races within himself, holding a pace rather than answering every acceleration. He has said he dislikes racing in heat, the conditions he rode through at the Volta a Portugal. Time trialling is the weakness he names himself, a discipline he had largely ignored in Portugal and started working on after moving up to the WorldTour.