"To be honest, things didn't go as expected today", however Isaac del Toro had a perfect outcome to retake Tirreno-Adriatico lead

The penultimate day for the climbers at Tirreno-Adriatico proved to be quite difficult, ridden at pace despite the roller-coaster profile with tons of climbs. Isaac del Toro had UAE Team Emirates - XRG control the stage and prepare his attack, which was done successfully. Nevertheless, the Mexican says that it didn't go as smooth as expected in the stage that had a tricky downhill finale into Mombaroccio.

"It was a grueling day for everyone. I think all the riders, both at the front and back of the peloton, suffered, so we will all feel that on Saturday. Fortunately, I still had just that little bit extra," Del Toro said in a post-race interview. Benoît Cosnefroy and Kevin Vermaerke put in the work over the final kilometers, with the team lacking Jan Christen in the decisive moments due to the crash he has suffered this week. UAE had an unusually modest lineup supporting Isaac del Toro throughout the stage, however it didn't make a difference in the outcome, even if the Emirati team was the one that did the most work.

In the final kilometers Del Toro pushed the pace on the climb to the Santuario del Beato Sante, which had two sections of around 1 kilometer at 9%. In the first he almost dropped a struggling Giulio Pellizzari. Inbetween the two sections he had to spend time in the front of the GC group however as he wanted the pace to remain high but had no teammates. Perhaps that was the reason for his slight disappointment “To be honest, things didn't go as expected today," he admitted.

However the Mexican still had no difficulty dropping Giulio Pellizzari, launching an attack in the final uphill ramp and building a gap of 19 seconds plus bonifications into the finale - only not obtaining the stage win. "Maybe it was the hardness of the course? It was tough in any case and I found it really difficult to drop Giulio, but anyway, I have the leader's jersey again.”