In a gesture of sportsmanship which left his novice teammate stunned, cycling great Tadej Pogacar gifted victory to Isaac Del Toro on the second stage of the Tour de France on Sunday.
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While Pogacar’s rival Jonas Vingegaard retained the overall race lead, the day belonged to Del Toro, a 22-year-old Mexican making his Tour debut.
“I’m super proud to have the level to manage these kind of situations,” Del Toro said. “I cannot believe I just did this, just full emotions. You cannot believe how it feels for me, especially for my country.”
With his first Tour stage win assured, courtesy of an assist, Del Toro urged his soccer countrymen — known as El Tri — to beat England at the World Cup in their round-of 16 match later Sunday in Mexico City.
“Of course we have these 11 guys ripping it up in the soccer,” he said. “They’re doing amazing.”
Del Toro attacked on the 700-meter climb to the finish to put Pogacar in a position to win, but Pogacar instead slowed down and put his arm on Del Toro’s shoulder as he let him cross the line first.
Del Toro looked open-mouthed with surprise at the gesture from Pogacar , who is looking to win the race for the third straight time and fifth overall.
As an exhausted Del Toro sat on the ground to get his breath back on a hot day, Pogacar went over to tightly hug his UAE Emirates-XRG teammate, who looked emotional after clinching his first Tour stage win.
Belgium rider Remco Evenepoel finished the stage in third place, just ahead of Vingegaard in fourth spot. The top four all clocked a time of 3 hours, 40 minutes, 1 second, but with the top three receiving time bonuses, Vinegaard’s lead over Pogacar was trimmed from 12 seconds to six seconds.
“I am very satisfied to be honest. As I said yesterday I will just enjoy every day I have in the yellow jersey,” Vingegaard said. “So far, so good. I cannot complain with how the GC (General Classification) looks for now.”
Vingegaard is looking to win the Tour for the third time after triumphing in 2022 and ’23 . The Danish rider took the yellow jersey on Saturday after leading his Visma-Lease a Bike team to victory in the opening-day time trial around Barcelona.
Stage 2 on Sunday took riders on a hilly 168.5-kilometer (104.5-mile) route starting from the Catalonian city of Tarragona, and featured three ascents to the 17th century Montjuïc castle before ending in Barcelona.
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Two breakaway riders — Dutchman Alex Molenaar and German Felix Engelhardt — were caught with about 30 kilometers to go.
As the peloton increased its speed, Vingegaard and Pogacar positioned themselves near the front to minimize the risk of being caught in a crash. Mindful of Pogacar launching one of his trademark sudden attacks, Vingegaard sat on Pogacar’s wheel on the climbs.
But the pace was too high for one-day classics specialist Mathieu van der Poel and he dropped back.
The three-week race hits the mountains early on Monday’s 196-kilometer (121.5-mile) third stage, starting from Granollers in Spain — near to where Formula 1 used to hold pre-season testing — and concluding with a short but sharp uphill dart to Les Angles in the French Pyrenees.
Stage 3 features a 9.3-kilometer (5.8-mile) ascent up Col de Toses at an average gradient of 6.5%. The climb is ranked as Category 1, the second-hardest level behind Hors Categorie (which means beyond classification).
However, fans will not be allowed on the roadside when the stage reaches France for the last 40 kilometers, due to fires in the area.
Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, the prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales department, said Sunday that only accredited vehicles would be allowed through with the riders.
“I regret having to announce that, in France, at least, it will be a stage of the Tour de France held without spectators,” he said.
Many observers predict it will be a two-way tussle again.
The 27-year-old Pogacar, who won his first two Tours in 2020 and 2021, recently won the Tour de Suisse stage race amid another ultra-dominant season.
The 29-year-old Vingegaard won the Giro d’Italia to become the eighth man to win all three Grand Tours, and last year clinched his first Spanish Vuelta title . ___
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