The rise of Del Toro and his road to Giro d'Italia glory

At the start of this Giro d'Italia, the name Isaac del Toro was little-known beyond cycling aficionados.

- FLO CLIFFORD

Fast forward to the business end of the crucial final week, and Del Toro is among the favourites to win the race, having sported the leader's pink jersey for eight days and picking up his first Grand Tour stage win on stage 17.

After a topsy-turvy Giro in which the pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic struggled and ultimately crashed out, a rider 14 years his junior, in only his second full year as a professional, raised far from the sport’s hinterlands of northern Europe, has assumed the mantle of leading one of the sport’s three biggest races.

The prodigiously talented 21-year-old grew up in Ensenada, a small town a two-hour drive from San Diego, in the Mexican state of Baja California. He told Volata, “My dad was a cyclist and my mum wanted my brother and me to be sportsmen,” and to that end, the young Del Toro became obsessed with cycling.

His abilities as a climber were honed at altitude, on some of Mexico’s toughest climbs, including the 4,631m Nevado de Toluca. Like many riders, he drilled relentlessly to turn his weaknesses into strengths, focusing on sprint training to make up for his lack of natural punch.

Hours spent mountain biking and doing cyclo-cross as a teenager also refined his bike handling skills and positioning, abilities which have served him well during this Giro as he has avoided the crashes that have brought down some of his rivals.

He joined the Mexican AR Monex team in his late teens and was meant to spend 2020 racing in Europe, but the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to that. But he worked his way up through lower-level races before he announced his arrival onto the world stage by winning the Tour de l’Avenir in 2023.