“No, no, no... not this” - Isaac del Toro shuts down talk of sharing UAE leadership with Tadej Pogacar at Tour de France after stunning turnaround at former Dauphine

Isaac del Toro had just won the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with back-to-back mountain victories, but the Mexican refused to turn his final-weekend surge into a UAE Team Emirates - XRG leadership debate before the Tour de France.

Del Toro overturned a 49-second deficit to Luke Tuckwell on the final stage to Plateau de Solaison, attacking 9km from the summit, winning the stage and sealing overall victory. It completed a dramatic turnaround after his Grand Colombier win on stage 7 and immediately pushed his Tour de France build-up into sharper focus.

Speaking to Cycling Pro Net after pulling on the final yellow jersey, Del Toro framed the victory as a race won rather than a message sent.

“I don’t want to show nothing,” he said. “I just wanted to try to win the GC and that’s it.”

Del Toro was asked whether the performance changed the picture around UAE leadership at the Tour de France, where Tadej Pogacar remains the team’s central figure. The question came after he had been asked whether he had heard from Pogacar during the week. “Yeah. He was 50-50 happy,” Del Toro said, before explaining only: “Internal joke.”

When the follow-up turned towards whether he was now pushing for overall leadership at the Tour de France, Del Toro shut it down immediately. “No, no, no,” he said. “Nothing about this. Another thing. Not this.”

Del Toro’s response came after one of the clearest climbing performances of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. UAE had taken control at the foot of Plateau de Solaison, before Pablo worked hard on the lower slopes and Del Toro chose his moment with 9km remaining. “Pablo was going too deep too early, maybe, and I decided to go,” he explained.

The attack quickly carried him across to the remnants of the break and into the race lead. Del Toro admitted there was a moment of doubt when he realised how much of the climb remained.

“When the sports director told me I still had 6km, yeah, a little bit,” he said. “But then it was okay in the final, the time gap and all this. So I managed to keep the time and then arrive and enjoy the final.”

Del Toro called the overall win special, describing it as his first yellow jersey as a professional, but avoided ranking it above his other stage-race victories. “This kind of race is super special,” he said. “It just feels different, but I will not put one above another one. Each of them teaches me something this year, what I want and what I don’t want as a cyclist.”

The Tour de France is now the next reference point. Del Toro was asked whether the victory sets him up well for his debut, and he pointed to reassurance rather than pressure.

“It’s something that puts peace in your mind when you are going in the right direction,” he said. “I don’t want to push super hard in my mind. I just want to go a little bit more with the flow and see how things are for the Tour de France.”

Asked whether this was his best climbing performance, Del Toro gave another restrained answer: “I think still not.”

Del Toro leaves the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes with the stage win, the general classification and the youth classification. The Tour de France questions followed immediately, but his answers stayed on recovery, calm and the race he had just won.