Vuelta: Cycling’s Next Prodigy

Isaac Del Toro held back in the Vuelta a Espana peloton in the first few days of racing. The 20-year-old Grand Tour debutant is officially there to learn. He is also expected to support the dual leadership of his UAE racing team consisting of the Portuguese Joao Almeida and the British Adam Yates – fourth and sixth in this year’s Tour de France. However, the quality of his support should provide an indication of how far the young Mexican has come. In professional circles he is considered a child prodigy, someone who can even meet his teammate Tadej Pogačar on an equal footing in the future.

Del Toro is currently five years on the same development curve as the Slovenian. Both won the most important junior race, the Tour de l’Avenir, at the age of 19. The following year he won his first victories on the World Tour. Del Toro managed to do this even a little earlier than his great role model.

On his third day of racing as a professional, the Mexican won a stage of the Australian Tour Down Under at the beginning of the year. How he did it was remarkable. About a kilometer from the finish, he suddenly accelerated, broke away from the peloton and kept the wild pack at bay until the white line. This shows what great strength he already has. »I can implement things well. I want that too. And I know that I’m a pretty versatile driver,” he said afterwards.

His coach also confirms this. Alfred “Freddy” Cruz was a talented driver himself. He was in the junior program of the US racing team Garmin, but had to end his active career early due to heart problems. He made his debut as a trainer when the Del Toro family approached him in his hometown of Ensenada, known primarily as a surfer’s paradise in Baja California, and asked him to train their then eight-year-old son Isaac. Cruz agreed.

In the ten years that he has been coaching Isaac Del Toro, he has found the following bundle of qualities, as he told the “Portuguese Cycling Magazine” last year: “His greatest strength is climbing. But he’s also not bad at time trials, which makes him ideal for tours. And he has extremely good values ​​for ten to 15-minute power applications, so he can also be good in classic races. In addition, he has very special concentration abilities. And he has such a strong will that he is not afraid to launch very early attacks.

That’s exactly how Del Toro won the Tour de l’Avenir: with a 50-kilometer attack in the mountains. That’s Pogačar’s hooray style. The Mexican then joined his racing team. It was a logical development. “We knew Del Toro much earlier, when he was still riding a mountain bike and wasn’t on the road at all,” said team boss Mauro Gianetti. Incidentally, Del Toro already competed in the Tour de l’Avenir on a racing machine from Colnago, the supplier of UAE Emirates.

Since then, the 20-year-old has been able to learn a lot from his captain Pogačar. “It’s great to see someone like him completely normal,” is how he describes his impressions. Like the Slovenian, Del Toro also emphasizes the fun of driving. “I hope that I will still enjoy cycling in ten years,” he said. He also sets ambitious goals. “In ten years I would like to have been fighting for victories in the most important races,” says Del Toro, meaning both one-day classics and the major tours.

The young Mexican has been living in Europe for a long time. In 2021 he moved from the Pacific coast to San Marino, where he competed in numerous races in Europe for the AR Monex team, which is licensed there, even before moving to UAE.

That’s why he already has several things ahead of Pogačar. The Slovenian needed nine pro days for his first men’s win, even 29 for his first World Tour win. On his Grand Tour debut in Spain in 2019, he took two stage wins and came third overall.

It would be presumptuous to expect the same from Del Toro at the Vuelta. He has two captains in front of him in the team: Yates and Almeida. Five years ago, Pogačar already had a free ride after the early exit of his then captain Fabio Aru at half-time. You should still keep an eye on Isaac Del Toro.