"I suffered a lot, every moment was worse than the previous one" - Isaac del Toro on the suffering to save pink jersey
CyclingWednesday, 28 May 2025 at 08:50
Isaac del Toro has been riding a formidable and next to perfect Giro d'Italia thus far, but today the first crack in his armour appeared. The Mexican and UAE Team Emirates - XRG have lost Juan Ayuso as a card to play for the overall classification, and in the final climb Del Toro himself barely hung on to the pink jersey.
Juan Ayuso cracked in the penultimate climb of the day, and that has confirmed that Del Toro is the sole leader of UAE at this race, and was the ultimate candidate to win the race. But at the Passo San Valentino, in a matter of 6 kilometers, things quickly changed.
"Today I realized that I was the maglia rosa. Today everyone tried to attack me and I couldn't believe I was in that position and I arrived empty at the finish line, I have nothing to regret, I gave it my all," he said in a post-race interview.
Del Toro matched the initial attack of Simon Yates, but couldn't hold the pace anymore with 3 kilometers to go, and subsequently lost almost a minute to the leader of Visma. However perhaps the most dramatic lost was that to Richard Carapaz, who gained over minute and a half on Del Toro on the final climb - both are now sitting within 31 seconds of Del Toro's lead.
"I have suffered a lot, every moment was worse than the previous one, a lot of pain, but I am very happy with everything, the team has been incredible, I really do not regret anything, the team has been by my side, but we go day by day, I have suffered a lot."
The pressure is seriously on now for the youngster if he is to win the race, as the gaps have been closed and UAE's full faith is now in him. With three mountain stages left and a performance to left to be desired today, there will be serious concerns in the UAE camp on whether they can hang on to this lead all the way into Rome.
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- His team's management, coaches, and agent likely have better insight
Front24208-06-2025 - "I did my best-ever hour in terms of power and was seven minutes behind. The thing is, for me, I've never raced up an hour-long climb before. And I've never trained for an hour-long effort" Bro why are you doing GC for god's sake when you have not the talent, the capacity, the training for GCabstractengineer08-06-2025
- Yes it was shocking to lose the Jersey in such a fashion and there was far to much questionable riding between the top 4, often being saved because Gee was trying to get into the top 3 but riding like was 2nd half the time when was just the 4 of them. The fact Isaac held on for so long given that, at his age was incredible and well worth a celebration. Its his team that truely failed him by chasing down when had dropped Yates(?) that stage and was gonna strengthen his lead and had Gee for IPT riding hard to help (again) to try and get 3rd but stupidly UAE chased it down and that cost the race.HoopoeChai08-06-2025
- He was never in the position to win one so a pointless statement except to confirm that being Italian, he’d never have been able to face his people or continue to live a normal life there but then IDT isn’t Italian, he isn’t even very close to the Mexican cycling scene, hence the lack of problem. Exile would be an alternative to throwing yourself off a tower, every 5y old today knows that ;-)Mistermaumau08-06-2025
- Again another very confusing post. I do not know what FC Barcelona have to do with Germany. No German side use the acronym FCB. Could it be it is yet another typing error from you and you are refering to FC Bayen Munich.
Senna196008-06-2025 - How would he know? What was he winning at Isaac’s age?Kbd08-06-2025
- Obviously something should be done because this way, all that will happen is what FCB does in Germany, buy off all the other teams good or dangerous players to keep in control. There could be a budget cap, a salary tree where 2nd best rider cannot earn more than x% of leader and next best only y% of 2nd best etc. so no team can offer salaries so interesting that top riders want to concentrate, or a budget surplus penalty where a team spending more than the allowed limit has to donate double or triple that amount to be shared among all but the top 5 (example) team budgets. Difficult part is to get everyone to agree on a levelling system, especially when big Saudi plans are floating around.Mistermaumau07-06-2025
- Mario could never have been in such a position, he was a showman and sprinter. Still a showman by the looks, creating headlines.VgnRider07-06-2025
- Times have changed, so have mentalities ;-)Jumpyjohn07-06-2025
- Lesser riders have beaten Matthieu. Obviously Mattieu is better than anyone in one day races that aren't terribly hilly. But that doesn't mean Wout can't ever beat him on the road or potentially a gravel race. Lots can happen and everyone is different day to day.Veganpotter07-06-2025
I have yet to watch the fullstage, been a busy day, but Carapaz is on fire, he and Yates will battle this one out until Stage 20 it looks like. Del Toro may come back as well some. Let's see how it plays out and now I'm off to watch the stage!