Isaac del Toro didn’t waste time making his first impression.
Final yr, in simply the second WorldTour race day of his profession, the then-20-year-old Mexican racer made a transfer that drew comparisons to considered one of del Toro’s new teammates, who simply occurs to be, arguably, one of many biggest cyclists of all time.
“Pogačar-esque” is how commentator Robbie McEwan described the assault del Toro launched on the second stage of the 2024 Santos Tour Down Below, his first race as a WorldTour professional with UAE Workforce Emirates-XRG. He attacked late, with fewer than two kilometres remaining on the day’s 141.6-kilometre parcours, leaving a bunch of a few of the world’s quickest sprinters in his wake. 4 phases later, he climbed onto the rostrum, ending the race in third total and profitable the younger rider classification within the course of.
Quick ahead a yr and a few months, and some first rate outcomes—fourth at Tirreno-Adriatico, seventh at Itzulia Basque Nation, thirteenth at Milan-Sanremo, sixth at Worlds—and del Toro is standing on high of the biking world. He captured the maglia rosa following a head-to-head with none apart from Wout van Aert (Visma -Lease a motorbike) that culminated with a remaining dash up the famed and feared ascent into Siena’s Piazza del Campo. In doing so, he grew to become the first-ever Mexican to tug the pink jersey over his shoulders. He’s additionally the youngest rider on this century to guide Italy’s Grand Tour.
Given his power within the mountains, many are saying the Giro d’Italia is del Toro’s race to lose.
However who’s Isaac del Toro? And the way did he not solely make his approach to the WorldTour, however onto top-of-the-line groups within the sport? In an period when data is in all places, available and simply Google-able, del Toro is a little bit of an anomaly: a top-tier athlete we someway know nearly nothing about.
Absolutely, the lack of understanding about del Toro has a lot to do together with his age and relative inexperience. If he retains up the tempo he’s presently on, we’ll little question know every little thing there’s to know concerning the younger all-rounder by this time subsequent yr. Hell, if he retains up the tempo he’s presently on, we would know every little thing there’s to learn about him by the top of this month.
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At simply 21 years previous, del Toro is just in his second yr as a WorldTour racer. And whereas he’s lined up for a few of the largest races on the calendar, he’s had little success of notice. After all, there are these aforementioned fourths, sixths, sevenths, and thirteenths. However these aren’t finishes that drive journalists to chase tales.
What we don’t learn about del Toro proper now may fill volumes. However right here’s what we do know.
Isaac del Toro in 2021 as a junior on the UCI World Championships
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Del Toro was born in Ensenada, Baja California, a port metropolis on Mexico’s Pacific coast, to a pair of cycling-mad mother and father. Rising up, he was an lively mountain, cross and street racer, ultimately competing with the Mexican nationwide crew. In 2021, when he was 18, del Toro was racing in Europe for A.R. Monex Professional Biking crew, a then-new UCI Continental outfit made up solely of workers and riders from Mexico.
He spent the subsequent two years studying his craft, lining up in smaller tetes like the two.1-rated Sibiu Biking Tour in Romania, Italy’s 1.2 Coppa della Tempo, and France’s 2.2 Tour du Loir et Cher.
Nevertheless, his breakthrough got here in late summer season of 2023, when, after three inauspicious phases on the Tour de l’Avenir, he rebounded in implausible trend, ending second, ninth, first, third, second, and second once more within the race’s remaining six phases. Del Toro’s efficiency was ok to seize all 4 of the race’s classifications: the race winner, the factors jersey, the perfect climber and greatest younger rider titles.
The efficiency at l’Avenir was head-turning sufficient that del Toro was provided a contract with UAE Workforce Emirates, the place he would crew up with one other former l’Avenir winner: Tadej Pogačar. The crew was so assured within the younger expertise that they gave him a contract by the top of the 2029 season.
He wasted no time, netting the aforementioned outcome on simply his second race day within the white and black livery of his new crew. He spent the remainder of the yr rounding out his busiest schedule ever: 66 race days between January and September, throughout which he gave one other sweeping efficiency on the UCI 2.1 Vuelta Asturias Julio Alvarez Mendo, the place he took house the GC, factors and younger rider jersey.
He began his 2025 season off with a much less busy schedule, ending nineteenth at Tirreno-Adriactico, thirteenth at Milan-Sanremo, and an inauspicious Thirty third at Strade Bianche.
He additionally gained mid-March’s 1.Professional race Milano-Torino, the world’s oldest race, beating Visma Lease-a-Bike’s Ben Tulett by only one second on the summit end.
However the data gained throughout that Thirty third-place end at Strade Bianche may need confirmed extra invaluable than anybody may have guessed on the time. It was only a few weeks later, in the course of the Giro d’Italia’s ninth stage, the place del Toro made his largest splash but as a WorldTour racer.
It was on a kind of identical roads the place del Toro and van Aert dropped the remainder of the peloton, and battled by the decrease roads of Siena, up its canyonesque streets and, ultimately, into the colosseum of Piazza del Campo.
And although he couldn’t greatest van Aert on that day, his efficiency was sufficient to web him the pink jersey.
As of this writing, del Toro has but to win a Grand Tour stage. If and when he does, he’ll be part of Raúl Alcalá and Julio Pérez Cuapio, his countrymen and native forebears, as the one Mexicans who’ve ever completed as a lot (Alcalá is a two-time Tour de France stage winner, Cuapio gained three Giro phases in his profession). If he can hold maintain onto the maglia rosa over the subsequent 9 phases, he’ll grow to be the first-ever Mexican to win a Grand Tour.
However it doesn’t matter what he does within the coming weeks, one factor is totally sure: Isaac del Toro gained’t stay a thriller for for much longer.
