"Today you’ve seen how quickly everything can change" — Isaac del Toro makes history and reopens the debate: Was Juan Ayuso wrong to leave UAE?

Cycling
Tuesday, 28 July 2026 at 10:20
Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro
Isaac del Toro emerged as one of the standout revelations of the 2026 Tour de France. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider made history as the first Mexican to step onto the podium of the Grand Boucle, finishing third behind Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel. He also claimed the white jersey as best young rider and opened his account in the French race with a stage win during the opening week.

The Tour de France proves to be a brutal challenge 

He did all that without abandoning the role he took on from day one: working to help Pogacar secure his fifth Tour. His success inevitably invites comparison with Juan Ayuso. The pair were teammates until the end of 2025, but chose very different paths. The Spaniard left UAE Team Emirates-XRG to become the outright leader at Lidl-Trek, convinced he needed a team built around him to fight for yellow.
Del Toro, by contrast, chose to stay within the Emirati structure, accept a secondary role alongside the best rider in the world, and wait patiently for his chances. One year on, the balance is stark: while Ayuso finished seventh and faded in the third week, the Mexican reached the podium and confirmed that the future is his, too.
After the finish in Paris, Del Toro explained that the result carries a meaning far deeper than a simple third place. “It’s very hard to be here. Today you saw how quickly everything can change. We were lucky there was a rule, but you also saw how cruel cycling can be,” he said, recalling the tension of the final stage.
The Mexican went a step further, highlighting the challenges many Latin American riders face to reach the elite of European cycling. “One day you’ll understand how complicated it is for us, Latin Americans, to get through these 21 days of racing,” he noted.
Isaac del Toro
Isaac del Toro on the podium of the 2026 Tour de France 

Del Toro and the long game of patience

“It’s a sport that has been developing for much longer in Europe, and coming here to compete at the highest level makes for a huge difference.” Even so, Del Toro chose to dwell on the positives of a performance that firmly places him among the leading figures of the international peloton. “I’m very happy and very grateful to be here,” he summed up. “It’s simply the context we have to live with.”
Beyond the brilliant sporting result, the Tour also offers a lesson in two very different ways to manage a career. Ayuso opted to leave the most dominant team in the world to seek outright leadership. The choice was understandable: sharing a roster with Pogacar inevitably limits opportunities to fight for the general classification.
However, his debut as sole leader ended up raising more questions than answers. The Spaniard faded as the race wore on and could not even finish ahead of Mattias Skjelmose, the teammate who was, in theory, meant to support him in the mountains.
Del Toro chose the opposite route. He stayed at UAE, worked for Pogacar when needed, and seized every opening the race offered. The outcome was a stage win, the white jersey, and a historic podium at the Tour de France.
It is too soon to deliver a definitive verdict on Ayuso’s decision, as his quality is beyond doubt and he still has room to grow. But if the question is confined to the outcome of the 2026 Tour de France, the answer looks clear. In their first year apart, Isaac del Toro’s bet on patience, learning alongside the best rider in the world, and collective work has yielded far more than the immediate pursuit of absolute leadership.
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