“He can fight for victory in a Grand Tour” - Giro redemption beckons for Isaac del Toro in 2027 as UAE keep Tour de France centred on Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar remains at the centre of UAE Team Emirates - XRG's Tour de France plans for 2027, while Isaac del Toro's rise leaves the team with an increasingly obvious question over where the Mexican gets his own Grand Tour leadership opportunity.
UAE are already discussing Pogacar's programme as the five-time Tour winner recovers from the injuries that brought his season to an early end at the Vuelta a Espana. Next year's altered calendar complicates matters, with the World Championships taking place before the Vuelta and several parts of his schedule still to be settled.
“We need to think carefully about that because the main goal remains the Tour, and his season has to be planned properly,” team principal Mauro Gianetti told Daniel Benson. “Once the plans for the Tour and the World Championships are in place, a decision has to be made about the Classics, what he will ride and what he won't, and then whether there is room for a second Grand Tour or not.”
Paris-Roubaix and a possible early-season appearance at the Tour Down Under are among the questions still to be answered, with Gianetti saying UAE expect to shape Pogacar's campaign through November and December. The team are also looking further ahead, with the Slovenian's programme being considered over a two or three-year period rather than one season at a time.
As long as Pogacar remains UAE's Tour leader, Del Toro's clearest chance to start a Grand Tour with the team built around him is likely to come elsewhere.
Pogacar and Del Toro in action at the 2026 Tour de France
Unfinished business at the Giro
Del Toro came within one mountain stage of winning the Giro d'Italia in 2025, spending 11 days in the pink jersey before Simon Yates overturned the race on the Colle delle Finestre. He eventually finished second overall in Rome on his Grand Tour debut, having carried the race lead deep into the final week.
A year later came his first Tour de France. UAE's ambitions were centred on Pogacar's bid for a fifth yellow jersey, yet Del Toro still reached Paris third overall and as winner of the white jersey.
“He showed that he was very close to taking the victory,” Gianetti said of the 2025 Giro. “He proved at the Tour this year that his level is really high. He can fight for victory in a Grand Tour, and he is probably ready for that.”
UAE have not confirmed Del Toro for the 2027 Giro, and Gianetti stopped short of laying out his programme. Italy nevertheless remains the most obvious destination if the team want to give him outright Grand Tour leadership while keeping Pogacar centred on the Tour.
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Il Lombardia offers another leadership chance
With Pogacar absent from Il Lombardia following his Vuelta crash, Del Toro lines up today as one of UAE's principal leaders alongside world champion Brandon McNulty. The team are chasing a sixth successive victory in the Monument, while Del Toro returns after finishing fifth on debut in 2025.
His season has already included overall victories at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico before his Tour podium, and he arrived in Lombardia after another aggressive ride at Gran Piemonte on Thursday. Del Toro attacked with Finn Fisher-Black in the finale before the pair were caught in the closing kilometres.
If the Giro does become Del Toro's destination next May, he would return two years after losing pink on the Finestre with a very different status: no longer the young rider who nearly won it ahead of schedule, but one UAE now openly believe is ready to fight for the overall victory.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- I know, news flash - a Dad isn’t a baby sitter. he is a parent. I can only assume something was lost in translation.mij10-10-2026
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- Primoz is so chill, his attitude is amazingmij10-10-2026
- I hope they work for him and the team gives him a chance.mij10-10-2026
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- Not for me now ;-) Because now that you have after all gone into some detail I have new questions (though maybe not ones you can answer) What is considered the official finish seeing as the drawn finish line is not infinitely thin. Is it the front, middle or back (I suppose the front seeing as that is the easiest to use for distinguishment)? I can imagine there is more imprecision in the straightness of the drawn line than the line of view for the apparatus, a couple of mm of tolerance accross the width of a road seems almost impossible to stick to with physical colour on typical surfaces so are riders not enlightened that it isn’t the actual paint that counts but the photo finish, that they should only consider tve line as an aiming target? Are moving and static objects treated separately or are they automatically created together?Mistermaumau10-10-2026
- congrats to him - that win did come from nowheremij10-10-2026
- congrats to him - that win did come from nowheremij10-10-2026
- congrats to him - that win did come from nowheremij10-10-2026
- congrats to him - that win did come from nowheremij10-10-2026
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