"They should’ve told me about Van Aert..." – Isaac Del Toro recalls shock at lack of clarity from UAE team car during fateful Giro d’Italia turnaround on the Finestre

Isaac Del Toro has opened up about the day he lost the Giro d’Italia — and the confusion that surrounded the defining moment of his debut at the Italian Grand Tour. Speaking to GCN en Español, the 21-year-old Mexican admitted his frustration at how team radio communication unravelled on the Colle delle Finestre, turning what had seemed a fairy-tale campaign into heartbreak.

Del Toro began Stage 20 to Sestriere in the Maglia Rosa, 43 seconds ahead of Richard Carapaz and 1 minute 21 up on Simon Yates. He had led the race since the Tuscan gravel stage back on day 9, outclimbing the favourites and outmanoeuvring more experienced rivals to become the youngest Giro leader in nearly two decades. But when the race hit the brutal gravel ramps of the Finestre — the highest climb of the race and its symbolic Cima Coppi — everything changed.

EF Education-EasyPost detonated the climb for Carapaz, isolating Del Toro from his UAE Team Emirates - XRG teammates. The pink jersey opted to hold back rather than match the early attacks. “I didn’t follow straight away,” he explained. “It’s an hour-long climb, and that effort from EF made no sense. Only when Brandon McNulty and Rafal Majka were gone did I bridge across.”

That bridge brought him to Carapaz — and then Yates arrived. The trio’s uneasy truce lasted only a few minutes. Yates, who had been biding his time all race, launched a vicious acceleration and immediately prised open daylight. It was the move that decided the Giro. “Carapaz had shown the best legs in the race, so on the radio they told me to watch him,” Del Toro said. “I think I’d do it differently now, but I made mistakes — some down to inexperience.”

As Yates surged away, Visma | Lease a Bike executed the perfect coup: Wout van Aert, already up the road from the day’s early break, dropped back to help his teammate across the descent and onto the run-in to Sestriere. Together they obliterated Del Toro’s advantage.

For Del Toro, what still stings most is how slowly that reality reached him. “When the radio told me Yates was up the road — and that Van Aert was too — Simon already had 55 seconds,” he recalled. “That shocked me. They should’ve told me about Van Aert when he had ten seconds, and I’d have said: let’s attack, let’s try.”

By the time he grasped the situation, it was too late. Yates linked up with Van Aert and blasted clear, turning his 1:21 deficit into a near-four-minute lead by the finish in Sestriere.

“I think from the car they didn’t want me to go over the limit and risk finishing fifth or sixth,” Del Toro said. “In the end we only lost one place, but the small mistakes cost us dearly. I made a tactical error — I forgot about the details, like Van Aert.”

Despite the heartbreak, Del Toro insists the experience has only hardened his resolve.

“When Simon came back, I knew I’d lose the Giro,” he said. “They both wanted to attack, and with their weight and altitude strengths they had the advantage. I’m proud of my Giro — but not of finishing second. I could have won, and that’s made me stronger for the future.”

That “future” is precisely what excites cycling’s insiders most. Del Toro may have lost the Giro on the Finestre, but in doing so, he announced himself as the sport’s next great stage-race prodigy — one who already knows what it’s like to have pink within reach, and what it takes to get it back.