"Now I believe in everything Tadej told me" - Isaac del Toro takes Pogacar's advice amidst Giro d'Italia defeat
CyclingMonday, 02 June 2025 at 10:20
UAE Team Emirates - XRG has a whole heap of young talent and amidst these, many seek for advice from Tadej Pogacar. As a Grand Tour specialist and winner of several, the Slovenian as given advice to Isaac del Toro throughout the Giro d'Italia and the Mexican is holding onto it even in defeat.
The leader of the UAE team never expected to enter the queen stage of the race in the pink jersey, but after three formidable weeks of racing where he only showed true weakness once, he arrived at the base of the Colle delle Finestre still within a very real shot of winning the race. It wasn't to be his year, but nevertheless he did withstand the multitude of attacks from Richard Carapaz, and did not crack - hence riding to a second place in the overall classification.
In Sestriere there were lots of tears both from the riders who were in the day's breakaway and those battling for the overall classification. Del Toro was naturally disappointed to have lost the race but still had a few smiles at the finish, congratulating his rivals and thanking his teammates for the work that had been done for him. Ultimately, he tried to put aside the difficult feeling of losing the race in it's final decisive climb.
"I shouldn't take it too seriously. Of course, it hurts, but that's how it is. I'm not going to cry. I'm going to keep working and I'll come back, that's for sure," he said following the race.
He followed the advice of Tadej Pogacar, and shares a bit about it as well: "What have I learned about myself during this Giro? That I can do it. Now I believe in everything Tadej told me. I want to stay relaxed and take things one day at a time. Of course, I'm disappointed, but don't stress. We'll come back,"
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- Well, it doesn't make sense for him to feign weakness and then destroys everyone on the climb on the first mountain stage. If he wanted to fake it, then he should fade away. Either he fades away completely to make it more convincing or don't fake it at all.
KerisVroom13-06-2025 - Yeah.... his form is terrible, he's lacking something ... bet Zonnefeld will find some excuse laterslappers6613-06-2025
- Well, that didn’t take long. Surprised that Evenepoel and Vingegaard both could not hold on, on what wasn’t the steepest or longest of climbs.RidesHills13-06-2025
- Did anyone take TPs own words into account?Mistermaumau13-06-2025
- Sorry but that’s not exactly the Pog we know from the past. It may be wiser but coming all so suddenly and without advance warning but with the apparent pressure to justify post-event, the most obvious conclusion to be made is, he’s actually not feeling THAT serene about the Tour after noticing what the others are up to.Mistermaumau13-06-2025
- Cycling media needs stories because there’s little happening or to tell outside the actual action and because it’s very hard to attract people away from the countless other forms of available distraction. Most riders are not exactly stimulating to listen to and most commentators are ex-riders ;-)Mistermaumau13-06-2025
- No, only the ones you’re aware of and a few who got away, some had nothing to release and were just unfortunate not to get any recognition.Mistermaumau13-06-2025
- He has not trained in TT specifically. He wanted to simulate the conditions of the TDF TT complete with bottle and drink. This should make sense, recreate the conditions of TDF not this TTabstractengineer13-06-2025
- Full release of all medications and tues applied for following his unfortunate crash leading up to that 2024 TDF.
Front24213-06-2025 - Why to think in elaborate complot and not in simple things like probably he woke up with some minor allergic symptoms? He was breathing hard like he had never done before (hyperventilating) at the start and the water was to calm the itching in the throat. And a complot for what? Visma would not consider him its main rival because 4th in a TT? senseless.
maria2024202413-06-2025
Why? They've got a load of more experienced GC riders. Give him a rest. Not a cool idea dude...
UAE should include Del Toro as a domestique for Pogacar at the Tour. After all, Simon Yates is also riding the Tour in support of Vingegaard.
Visma had a prob with tactics with Roglic in the giro a few times, & with Vingegard also in a GT.. similarly, UAE are soo used to having Pogacar 'just winning, simmering a talent to boil is learning point for both it appears...
incredible maturity for such a young guy. Pity that UAE DS messed up the tactics on stage 20