"If I lost the Giro, I would rather throw myself off a tower than celebrate" - Italian legend criticizes Isaac del Toro's behaviour after losing pink jersey
CyclingSunday, 08 June 2025 at 09:09
The loss of the pink jersey on stage 20 was enormous for Isaac del Toro and UAE Team Emirates - XRG but few would've guessed that taking into consideration the reactions after the finish line. Whilst this is regular in current cycling, Mario Cippolini does not understand it and has criticized what he believes is unauthentic behaviour.
"If I lost the Giro, I would rather throw myself off a tower than celebrate. I'm happy to belong to a different kind of cycling. It was ridiculous, a false fair play that really bothers me, it's only done to attract consensus," Cipollini said in a an interview with journalist Claudio Ghisalberti.
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After 11 days in the lead of the Giro d'Italia, Del Toro lost the lead of his maiden Giro d'Italia on the final competitive stage, matching Richard Carapaz' every attack on the Colle delle Finestre but later on being overtaken by Simon Yates.
"The objective is to contain Carapaz, but don't you realize that you are losing everything," the Italian sprinter, a winner of many stages at the Giro, continued. The Mexican ultimately lost the provisional lead, and with Simon Yates assistance at the head of the race, hopes were reduced quite a lot in the Del Toro group, which stopped after Carapaz refused to collaborate with his rival following the climb.
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May 12, 11:09
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- He has a better shot at winning a stage than Roglic, sadly...bobo25-06-2025
- Horner ain't lyin'...bobo25-06-2025
- Don't forget just how important newspapers have been - pretty much every race has been started by a newspaper. Which means that cyclinguptodate could launch it's own races. I propose a mountain classic in Wales [Cymru] - a 257km long route in Abergavenny [Y Fenni], with a repeated loop of Blorenge [Blorens], thus climbing the Foxhunter [5.2km at 8.7% average, max gradient 19%] 18 times, totalling to 8380m of climbing [that's twice a grand tour queen stage].
Llywelynglyndwr24-06-2025 - If you're riding against Pog, sending your team to the front to "make it hard" doesn't help, it plays into UAE's hands. Do something, literally anything, else!acem8224-06-2025
- If Jonas wins the 'tour... 🤦♂️ - but I don't think he will in the slightest
leedorney24-06-2025 - look at how useful Van Aert can be as a leadout man or sprinter in his own rightLlywelynglyndwr24-06-2025
- Mostly that's because he knows he doesn't have much of a chance, e.g in the olympics. I think that if he had a proper chance to get something out of the mountain stages [i.e if he had a GC leader]Llywelynglyndwr24-06-2025
- Not if you like at the climbing times. Then it's like 2-3%Nomadic1924-06-2025
- I mean, he always stood out for consistency/resilience, not just in 2025. ANd not crashes... I don't recall him crashing.
maria2024202424-06-2025 - Almeida's resilience is phenomenal. I remember a stage of La Vuelta 2023 (l'Angrilu?): he was sick, with a severe cold. The team left him completely alone (discarded). He rode 100km alone, finishing... top 6!. It's usual to see him being dropped/ disappeared, but suddenly, somehow, at the end, arriving in privileged positions. His effort/energy control is brilliant. He's not a super-winner, but he's a fabulous ridermaria2024202424-06-2025
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.
How would he know? What was he winning at Isaac’s age?
Mario could never have been in such a position, he was a showman and sprinter.
Still a showman by the looks, creating headlines.
Well Mario, you lost all of your Giros but you are still here
Times have changed, so have mentalities ;-)
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 ;-)