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Amaro Antunes, the Algarve who “was born to be a star”, fulfilled his destiny by winning the special edition of the Volta a Portugal by bicycle, finally fulfilling the old aspiration of being a leader.
The conquest of the final yellow in a shorter edition, marked by the covid-19 pandemic, is the natural result of a career built, with determination and ambition, by an attack cyclist, intrepid and always dissatisfied with the role of a supporting actor. . in the different teams he went through.
“When I was 21, 22 years old, and I began to appear as a cyclist, I remember, at one point, when he accompanied me and asked me who that boy was, to answer: one of the next winners of the Volta a Portugal”, he said. Samuel Caldeira to the Lusa agency.
Friend, colleague from W52-FC Porto, roommate – “I share a room with Amaro all year round, from start to finish, even in stages. He replaces my wife when she is away and I replace hers.” – and even his godfather, the fast and sociable man of luxury of the ‘dragons’, has known the new winner of the Volta a Portugal since he started riding his bike.
“At that time I was under 23 years old in Loulé, and he was a junior there. And since we were both from the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, there was that closeness. I followed his entire career as professionals, we were partners. in Tavira and everything. Meanwhile, we created a very strong bond of friendship, “he revealed, guaranteeing to Lusa that Antunes” was born to be a star. “
Caldeira was not the only one who noticed the potential of the climber from Vila Real de Santo António. For almost a decade, the name of Amaro Antunes resonates behind the scenes of the caravan as a potential winner of the Volta a Portugal, a ‘fame’ born when he was still a junior and was national champion in time and in time, in 2008, the year he ‘cleaned’ almost every test he participated in.
Professional since 2011, he ventured for the first time to Ceramica Flamínia-Fondriest, the Italian team that was a ‘nursery’ of talents, but which was a frustrated dream for the Portuguese who passed by, left to their own devices by their bosses.
Individualistic, not always consensual, the Algarve returned to Portugal and never hid that they wanted more, first at Banco Bic-Carmin (2014), then at LA Aluminios-Antarte (2015 and 2016) and, later, at W52-FC Porto, teams in which he excelled, never really being the only leader, and added places in the ‘top 10’ from Volta to Portugal.
It was this ambition that led him to make the leap abroad, to the CCC, in 2018, after winning at the top of Malhão and being fifth in the Volta ao Algarve won by Primoz Roglic, winning the Joaquim Agostinho Trophy, occupying second place on the podium in the 2017 Tour and to ‘crush’ the competition, together with the winner Raúl Alarcón.
In the Polish national team, he showed, with important positions and the victory in Volta a Malopolska, however, it was the following year, when CCC promoted to the WorldTour, that the Portuguese climber stood out the most: he was in the ‘top 10 for six days’ do Giro, where he was even third in the 19th stage, before being relegated from his directors’ plans for the big stages.
“To be honest, it was my choice to come back. It was a very good and enriching experience. Now I think about this year and I enjoy it to the fullest. I hope it will be a brilliant year,” he told Lusa in February, in Volta ao Algarve.
Back home and to a team he identifies with, Antunes found his way to his first victory at Volta a Portugal, the biggest stage for expressing his qualities as a ‘native star’.
“He gets along very well with microphones, he has a great facility when a microphone is placed in front of his mouth, he speaks naturally and speaks quite well. That is a gift you have. He is not shy, he is not intimidated, he always has a good and fluent speech. He’s a good politician, ”Caldeira joked.
To the “boy who is very friendly with his friend”, the experienced ‘dragon’ cyclist only finds one fault: “he is quite distracted, very forgetful, and you have to always be aware of him so that there is no lack, so that everything goes well “. “Fortunately, today everything went well.
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