Isaac Del Toro had a remarkable season with no less than eighteen victories (including national titles). Yet that total might well have been nineteen. By taking a gamble, the 21-year-old Mexican lost the general classification in the Giro d'Italia during the 20th stage over the Colle delle Finestre. In an interview with Ciclismo Internacional, the multiple winner looks back on the strange finale.
Before the first Grand Tour of the 2025 season, all eyes were on UAE Emirates XRG. The world's best team had two top GC contenders in Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso. Therefore, there was no talk of a leader role for Del Toro.
Del Toro rode (with Van Aert on his wheel) towards the pink jersey in Siena - photo: fotopersburo Cor Vos
"My role at the start of the Giro was simply to function as a domestique, while Adam and Ayuso would focus on the GC," the 21-year-old admitted candidly. According to Del Toro, both Yates and Ayuso had already proven themselves multiple times as GC leaders, and the Spaniard had even shown he could come close to the absolute top riders.
Del Toro in leader role
But during the first weeks of the Giro, Del Toro, formerly a 'domestique', started increasingly acting like a team leader after he 'accidentally' found himself in pink in Siena. "I think the team only realized after a few podium finishes, and I did too, that I was one step ahead of what they thought. From that moment on, they gave me total freedom," he explains. The pink jersey wearer was allowed to prove himself as a contender for overall victory from then on.
The team management did not have to tell their golden boy twice. Day after day, Del Toro’s chances of overall victory seemed to grow. Although he took a heavy blow from Richard Carapaz during stage sixteen, he showed barely 24 hours later that it was just an incident. The Mexican in pink looked dominant and sprinted to the stage win in Bormio. The duel between Carapaz and Del Toro was to be decided on the penultimate day at the Colle delle Finestre.
Wrong choices
When Ciclismo Internacional asked about that decisive stage, Del Toro answered philosophically. "If I could ride that stage again, I think I would do something different, but I don’t know if it would make me a better rider than I am now," he said cryptically. "I'd like to say yes to the question of whether I would do something differently now, but I don’t even know if changing anything would have allowed me to keep the pink jersey."
Del Toro on the Finestre - photo: fotopersburo Cor Vos
Del Toro describes the decisive stage in which he lost the pink jersey as a tough day both physically and mentally. He admits he made some mistakes but largely attributes them to lack of experience. "I would say my mistakes happened when EF Education started pushing so explosively in the first part of the Colle delle Finestre."
"I didn't follow that pace because it didn’t make sense to me. The climb would take an hour, so it was pointless." So the pink jersey wearer wanted to let his teammates set the tempo and let rival Carapaz go ahead. "But in the end, I felt that Brandon (McNulty, ed.) wasn’t feeling well and said he couldn’t help me. I looked at Rafa (Majka, ed.) and he looked desperate. So I said: ‘They are attacking me, I have to be there,’ and I went for it.”
Decisive moment
So Del Toro chose to follow the early attack from his Ecuadorian pursuer, leading to a poker game between the two. Simon Yates took advantage of this and went off the front. According to the Mexican pink jersey wearer, he only realized late how fast the Brit opened a gap on the pair. "The problem was that when the radio told me that Simon and Wout van Aert were ahead, Simon was already 55 seconds in front. That was a shock for me."
Del Toro and Carapaz watch Yates break away on the Colle delle Finestre - photo: fotopersburo Cor Vos
"You shouldn’t have told me then; you should have told me when he was 10 seconds behind or when he rode beside me," Del Toro thought at the time. "Then I would have said: 'If we all attack, I will attack too. I’ll either lose or win the Giro or whatever, but we’ll try.'" In Del Toro’s eyes, this race tactic meant he didn’t get to try fully.
Still, the 21-year-old climber holds no grudge against the UAE Emirates XRG management. "In the car, I think they didn’t want me to push too hard and finish not second but fifth or sixth because of my inexperience. So I also think the team’s situation was complicated."
"I think it worked out as well as it could because, in the end, we only lost one position. But really, it was those small mistakes that cost us dearly. It was clearly a temporary tactical error on my part, where I overlooked details, like for example the advanced Van Aert," he continues.
Stain on the season
Although Del Toro sometimes sounds a bit nonchalant when talking about the Giro’s finale, the result does bother him. "If you had told me at the start of the race that I could achieve five podiums, a win with the Maglia Rosa, and second place with the Maglia Bianca, I think few people would have bet on that result, yet it happened."
"But the truth is I lost and came second, and I’m not proud of that now because I was in a position to win. But it’s something that makes me stronger for the future. And of course, now that I think about it more, I would have liked to lose after we had given it our all, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It’s something that hurts," he concludes honestly.
| Rank | Rider | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Tadej Pogačar | 20 |
| 2 |  Paul Magnier | 19 |
| 3 |  Isaac Del Toro Romero | 18 |
| 4 |  Tim Merlier | 16 |
| 5 |  Mads Pedersen | 14 |
| 6 |  Matthew Brennan | 12 |
| 7 |  Olav Kooij | 11 |
| 8 |  João Almeida | 10 |
| 9 | Alexander Salby | 9 |
| 9 |  Jonathan Milan | 9 |
