"I will try not to miss the action next time" - Isaac del Toro laments not having been able to help Tadej Pogacar at Milano-Sanremo
Cycling
UAE Team Emirates - XRG had a well-crafted plan for Milano-Sanremo and although it did quite well, it missed an important piece in Isaac del Toro. The Mexican did a strong race, but was out of position when the team exploded the race in Cipressa and he laments not having been part of Tadej Pogacar's leadout.
Vegard Stake Laengen, Domen Novak and Nils Politt did positioning and leadout duties into the climb itself, where for a few minutes Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narváez set a suffocating pace. It was a short climb without severe gradients, and so when Narváez pulled away, Tadej Pogacar launched his attack.
A few minutes Del Toro would make it to the front of the chasing group, however by that time his leader was gone. The youngster struggled to have the best positioning into the climb, and it could be said that his presence would've made a difference to the team's plans of making the race as hard as possible.
"I will try not to miss the action next time," Del Toro wrote in an Instagram post. "To keep fighting, the spirit of wanting to win has to be shown everywhere. Thank you for always being with me and thank you for all the love. See you soon". He still rode to a 13th place on the day, and will now take some rest after an intense racing block in order to prepare for the Giro d'Italia. It is not known yet if he will still be racing before the Corsa Rosa.
Read also
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- The finale of this race was an absolute mess, and the last crash that took out 1/2 of the field was caused when a double width road very suddenly funneled into a single lane, and riders had nowhere to go. I find it amazing how some of these courses get approved in the first place. So much for the UCI's campaign for improved rider safety, because if they actually cared, the organizers wouldn't have been allowed to run the finale on this parcours.
santiagobenites26-03-2025 - I hope Wout can come back. He has had 3 terrible crashes--not on par with Froome or Bernal, but at his level just a fraction of a percent is all that separates the grand champions of this new generation. Even if he is back all the way physically, those abrupt confrontations with pavement and mortality take a psychic toll, especially for a father of young kids.
Barney26-03-2025 - Everyone was so keen on free speech for a while, what happened ;-) But seriously, the problem is not so much that he gave his view as that someone follows it and spreads it, not totally unlike the schoolkids running US war games at present ;-)Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- We'll see what happens this year, hopefully he finds himself a little stronger.awp26-03-2025
- awp, the way and races he races, he probably doesn’t feel like he needs that many or specific race days before the Tour. His program isn’t very different from other years.Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- No, he just realises he’s not a one-day racer so why should he force himself?Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- Sacrificing E3 and G-W that were planned seems like he was hedging his options and only decided to do it after not winning MSR. Would he have planned to do all 5 and if so why hold back on announcing P-R if it wasn’t conditional? Guess people will get active with predictions now :-).Mistermaumau26-03-2025
- The MTB World title - there is no such thing. However, there are World titles in XCC, XCO, XCM, XCE, Enduro, Downhill......... He's after the World title in XCO, but could probably win the XCC title too, as his record is still better than anybody else, and he hasn't ridden an XCC World Cup since May 2021. Ten wins from twelve races says it all..... However, the XCO course is Crans-Montana is technical - he will surely need plenty of time back on the MTB, both training, and racing, otherwise it's going to be another doomed ambition.wipperman9526-03-2025
- Sweet. I wonder who's up on the next episode of Disgraced Ex-Doper Offers an Unsolicited Opinion?critguy26-03-2025
- well, paris-roubaix isn’t hilly AT ALL. it’s flat. the obstacle isn’t the hills it’s the cobbles, and what i’ve gathered over the years is that it’s almost impossible to imagine the beating that the body takes riding that course at race pace.OCexile26-03-2025