“It would be incredible” – Isaac del Toro eyes Paris podium after helping Tadej Pogacar take control of Tour de France
CyclingSaturday, 11 July 2026 at 18:08
Isaac del Toro has set his sights on sharing the Tour de France podium with Tadej Pogacar after safely retaining third place overall on Stage 8.
The 22-year-old Mexican reached Bergerac without incident and remains 3:27 behind his UAE Team Emirates – XRG leader. With Pogacar already 2:42 clear of Jonas Vingegaard, UAE hold a genuine chance of placing two riders on the final podium in Paris.
Del Toro safely through dangerous sprint stage
Stage 8 was decided by a bunch sprint won by Tim Merlier, but the flat and increasingly technical approach presented a different challenge for the general classification contenders. Avoiding crashes, conserving energy and managing another day of intense heat took priority for UAE.
“The truth is that things went well for us today,” Del Toro said after the finish. “The team’s responsibility was to keep us safe and hydrated. We didn’t have any crashes today. Another day safely completed.”
Del Toro crossed the line with his position intact after UAE kept both him and Pogacar away from trouble. He continues to lead the youth classification, seven seconds ahead of Juan Ayuso and 28 ahead of Paul Seixas.
His hold on third place remains narrow. Remco Evenepoel is only three seconds behind, with Ayuso a further four seconds back and Seixas still within half a minute of Del Toro.
Tadej Pogacar, Isaac del Toro and Jonas Vingegaard cross the line together at the 2026 Tour de France
UAE eye two places on Paris podium
Pogacar’s dominant Stage 6 victory in Gavarnie-Gedre established him as the clear race leader, but Del Toro’s performance on the Tourmalet elevated the Mexican into the developing podium battle.
He finished third on the stage after helping set up Pogacar’s long-range attack, then joined Evenepoel, Seixas, Ayuso, Florian Lipowitz and Mattias Skjelmose in the next group behind Vingegaard.
Del Toro has embraced the possibility of combining his work for Pogacar with a personal challenge for a place in the top three. “I think it would be incredible to form a tandem with Tadej Pogacar in pursuit of the podium in Paris,” he admitted.
Pogacar’s yellow jersey remains UAE’s clear priority, while Del Toro continues to operate as one of his most important mountain domestiques. His own position gives the team another tactical option and places pressure on Vingegaard, Evenepoel and the other podium contenders.
After eight stages, UAE lead the Tour through Pogacar, hold third place and the white jersey through Del Toro, and have both riders positioned for a potential double podium in Paris.
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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- Slashed by 30km? More like timidly trimmed. The riders will still be out there during the hottest hours, from 2 to 5 pm.Hills3311-07-2026
- Perfectly put. Most of the criticism of sprint stages comes from people who find the GC the only interesting thing. Then any stage without GC action, like stage 4, is boring. It's a testament to Pogačar's greatness that he makes mountain stages much more boring than sprints. But then, Froome did that too. And Vingegaard does too. And Contador. And Merckx...
Rafionain-Glas11-07-2026 - lance armstrong calling out someone’s behavior - crazy. there is no bigger poor sport bad teammate in the history of the sport.mij11-07-2026
- I find it boring to watch guys sitting in for 100K just to sprint the last 200 meters, lol. To each his own
ScottG11-07-2026 - Yeah, kind of disappointed me a bit more there. I respect that there are situations where someone in his position would strike a balance that lands the wrong side of history but we now live in a time where each of us has to make changes to our situation to avoid having to make bad choices. And as an example to so many others you have a bit more responsibility in the choices you make. That said, anyone seriously concerned about the future of our world would probably never have chosen to try to become a pro rider unless wanting to militate for change so he is probably not the best person to expect more from. Hopefully at some point he’ll realise the error and find solutions and better sponsors, can’t imagine he can’t be more picky.Mistermaumau11-07-2026
- MTB making headlines during the TdF, haha. even boring articles about MVDP’s expected lack of results at the TdF will get more clicks. For MVDP going to the TdF must feel like most of us feel having to spend Christmas at the in-laws.Mistermaumau11-07-2026
- Welcome to CUTD :-)Mistermaumau11-07-2026
- I did that just through cringing at the text :-) And then there are the contradictions like trying to make you think the shallow rise explained the growing gap when elsewhere it’s the descent.Mistermaumau11-07-2026
- I doubt the official narrative is just one thing and there have been plenty of improvements elsewhere, or else why is equipment nowhere like it was back in the days? Coming from another sport, many of us were always quite surprised at how underdeveloped cycling used to be, including in training but recently that seems to have been realised and reversed which accounts for the relatively big improvement compared to more « advanced » sports. If you also follow amateur cycling you’ll see improvement has been across the board. If you’re interested in more than just pro racing you’d also see how the limits are being pushed out in many different directions like training, endurance and aerodynamics and that pros still have a lot of upward potential, hence the arrival of a Seixas after a Pogačar is not really that surprising.Jumpyjohn11-07-2026
- I think if you do a proper survey you’ll discover differences between Different types of races Different periods of his career Growth from certain areas/reasons and reductions from others. Before any survey, you should decide why you want or need to know. For sure TdF crowds depend more on the kind of French participation there is than anything else. Despite its global screen reach, spectators are largely locals with a high number of visitors following along a series of stages. Pretty sure none of the Mou aren’t there though and considering his criticism of Trump, I’m not quite sure how they let him in, must have been a sleeper before Tadej’s activity woke him.Jumpyjohn11-07-2026
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