"Don't listen people who say 'You lost'" - Isaac del Toro's top domestique shares emotional message

Isaac del Toro held the pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia for 11 days, and although the leadership was widely shared with Juan Ayuso, in the final week specially Rafal Majka proved to be a very close and important ally to the Mexican. After Del Toro's ultimate defeat in the overall classification, Majka was quick to brighten up the mood.

It was a difficult defeat of course for UAE Team Emirates - XRG, and the Pole himself was visibly dissatisfied during yesterday's finale in Sestriere after having understood the full situation that had played out on the road. A difficult pill to swallow for a UAE that worked three weeks for the overall win.

Majka once again proved to be a golden rider in the mountains, even riding himself into a 13th place in the overall classification due to the strong performances that he consistently put in the final week of the race specially.

In Sestriere he was once again pivotal, only the race had already escaped Del Toro's hands by the time Majka and Brandon McNulty reached him at the base of Sestriere. He put in work to control the gap but the pink jersey was gone by far. At the end, the 35-year old was thanked quite a lot.

On X - formerly known as Twitter - the veteran shared a message of support to Del Toro, who could not hold the pace of Simon Yates in the Colle delle Finestre. "We wrote a cool story Isaac! Don't listen people who say 'You lost'... With this experience, one day you'll become a Champ".