Experts already see him the successor to Tadej Pogacar: With Isaac del Toro, a young Mexican is sensationally located at the Giro d’Italia.
Romain Bardet and Richard Carapaz were only amazed on Wednesday (May 28, 2025) when Isaac del Toro suddenly exploded. The trio had settled on the heavy 17th stage of the Giro d’Italia up to Bormio from the rest of the field and seemed to be a three-sprint to turn the day’s victory. But del Toro suddenly competed almost two kilometers before the finish. The only 21-year-old Mexican simply drove away from the two experienced professionals.
“Dangers like an insane”
“He drove like an insane”Bardet stammered at the finish line. “Of course I really wanted to win today. But if someone drives off, then you just can’t do anything”said the 34-year-old French mountain specialist.
Del Toro is currently on everyone’s lips in the cycling scene. Of course, he was expected somewhere in the forefront of the Giro, but that he was so playful that he would have to be chess with all the favorites such as the unfortunate and now eliminated Red Bull captain Primoz Roglic, Carapaz, Simon and Adam Yates or even Egan Bernal-nobody would have expected that.
Mexico – anything but a cycling country
That del Toro would be a successful cycling professional at all – even that was hardly to be predicted. Mexico is not exactly a cycling country. Football is number one, cycling is only interested in a few. A good 30 years ago, Mexico once had an internationally established cycling professional – Raul Alcala drove a few times at the Tour de France in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But that was, there has been no more. As well as? There are hardly any clubs, races – especially for young drivers – are few and far between in Mexico.
But with the del Toros, the bike was quickly the number one sports equipment. Together with his brother Angel, which is one year older, Isaac was traveling early on two wheels. While Angel lost the fun at some point, Isaac stayed on. He moved to Europe as a teenager. The goal was San Marino – the AR Monex team has been registered there for a few years. A privately organized group that is supposed to assist Mexican talents on the way to professional cycling.
Breakthrough on the tour d’acenir 2023
Nevertheless, it was totally surprising for the experts in the scene that Del Toro suddenly cleared everything at the tour d’Avenir tour – one of the most important tours for talents – in 2023 as a 19 -year -old. He first won the mountain arrival of the sixth stage on the Col de la Loze before taking the lead in the overall ranking on the last stage with the second stage. In addition, he also won the points, the mountain and the young talent.
He struck like a comet. The World Tour teams tore themselves around him. The industry leader finally received the contract: the UAE team around Tadej Pogacar attracted del Toro with good perspectives and – as you hear – princely salary.
Compare with Tadej Pogacar
Even then there were comparisons with Tadej Pogacar, but they remained careful with UAE. They didn’t want to burn their new talent. After Del Toro at the Tour Down Under in January 2024, in one of his first missions, the day win, Marco Marcato, who was on the possible Pogacar successor, wokeed up on site, Marco Marcato, UAE’s sports director, “It’s much too early for that!”
In fact, the very big victories in 2024 and at the beginning of the 2025 season were still out – but these days at Giro, the extremely talented climber, who also has qualities in time trials, really gets through. Actually, he should only be at his side of his young teammate Juan Ayuso, which is also still a young, but already significantly further developed.
From the beginning there
On the first stages, he kept himself harmless and ended the first mountain arrival behind Juan Ayuso in second place, which he advised against the third place. Two days later, he proved to be part of the top group on the 9th stage, which led over several gravel sections to Siena when one of the strongest drivers and took second place behind the Belgian Wout van Aert.
At the same time, he drove out about the remaining overall classification drivers for around a minute and was the first to take over the Maglia Rosa, the pink jersey. After defending the overall lead in the second individual time trial, he took several bonification seconds on the following stages and thus expanded his lead to 38 seconds before the Alpine stages. And at the latest since Juan Ayuso has fallen back in the course of the week due to knee problems, the path has been clear for the Mexican.
Clear leadership in the Giro overall ranking
After his coup from Wednesday, del Toro leads the overall ranking of the Giro with 41 seconds ahead of Richard Carapaz (EF Education Easy Post). In third place Simon Yates (Team Visma / Lease A Bike) has 51 seconds behind. The residues of the drivers placed behind them are striking: Damiano Caruso has over three minutes behind, the ninth, Adam Yates, drives after 7:45 minutes.
So it should be clear: Even if del Toro still has a weak day, he will take a top result from the Giro. The experts now assume that he will win.
Holger Gerska, Sportschau, May 28, 2025 5:20 p.m.