DISCUSSION Giro dell'Emilia | Is Isaac del Toro a top 5 rider in the world currently?

The Giro dell’ Emilia 2025 featured its traditional punchy route, with plenty of short but steep ascents and the iconic climb to San Luca (2.1km at 9.4%) that is always decisive for the outcome of the race.

Five riders went down the road soon after the race started. The men in question were Enzo Leijnse, Gijs Leemreize, Jacob Bush, Sinuhé Fernández and Pablo García. The first three riders were all teammates from Team Picnic PostNL and they were the last three survivors, but they were all absorbed by the peloton before the final circuit commenced.

It was full UAE control from that point of the race, with veteran Rafal Majka first and Jay Vine later setting a hard tempo that deterred potential attacks. Only Mikkel Frølich Honoré tried his luck, but he was briefly caught by the bunch.

The penultimate lap saw the first attacks amongst the main favourites, with Cian Uijtdebroeks and Lenny Martinez opening a small gap that UAE domestiques (Vine and Yates) were not able to close.

It was Tom Pidcock who subsequently attacked and bridged to the duo in front, with Primoz Roglic, Isaac del Toro and Michael Storer following his wheel. Nobody in the group wanted to pace, so a small group of around 10 riders rejoined them.

In the fifth and final ascent to San Luca, Pidcock launched a powerful attack that had no answers initially, until del Toro appeared. The Mexican truly enjoys racing in Italy, and today was no exception, catching the Briton in what seemed an effortless acceleration and outsprinting him in the finish line. Lenny Martinez completed the podium.

Once the race finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

An interesting race, as always. UAE took control of the race, although I argue that they didn't really try to use their numbers to put pressure on other teams. In the end it worked out because Isaac del Toro was simply the strongest on the day, as expected. It was surprising to see Cian Uijtdebroeks so strong in this type of terrain, although it seems clear that he spent too much energy before the final climb to then be involved in the fight for victory.

Tom Pidcock back into great form, a good sign after the Vuelta, and he may still get his big win now late in the year. Del Toro should go to Lombardia after this and make for a likely one-two for UAE honestly if it continues like this, but until then he will likely still take one or two more wins on the way.

Isaac del Toro is a star. Anyone who denies it is trying to hide the sun with their finger. There aren't many riders in better shape right now than the Mexican. 14 wins in a single season is a high number, even for today's biggest superstars. And the best part is that number could continue to rise in the coming days.

Therefore, I think we should start considering Del Toro as at least one of the top eight riders on the planet. At just 21 years old, his ceiling is sky-high. Victories as convincing as this Giro dell'Emilia against Tom Pidcock make me want to see him lead UAE Team Emirates XRG in a Grand Tour from the very beginning.

In the Giro d'Italia, he found himself with the "captaincy" title in a difficult way, as the goal was to support Juan Ayuso and Adam Yates from the start. With his tremendous climbing ability and enormous courage, I would love to see him fight for a Grand Tour from the opening stage. Because I'm sure that if he keeps up this progress, his first title in one of the 3 will come sooner rather than later.

Isaac del Toro cannot stop winning. It has been an impressive development for such a rider, he already has 14 victories and that number can still grow because he still has some upcoming races in his schedule. All of them in Italy, his favourite country judging by his results.

Today he played it smart. His team did a superb job but he didn’t want to spend energy too early, so he didn’t close the gaps at the beginning. He knew he had the advantage at the final kilometre thanks to his explosiveness, so he just made sure to keep the race controlled until that point. Then he attacked, and he was just unstoppable. He is in great shape, very few people can match his explosiveness and nobody was in Italy today.

Perfect execution and the 88th win of the season for UAE. You could argue he had been farming wins against a weak field these past weeks, but today he did it against the likes of Roglic, Pidcock or Bernal. It was not in a Pogacar-esque style, he is not in that level…yet.