‘Not easy to finish on the podium being ill’ – Isaac del Toro set to bring home third place in Tour de France and clear youth classification victory despite last-week struggles

Isaac el Toro was both visibly emotional and weary at the Alpe d’Huez finish line on Saturday as the 22-year-old was set to celebrate a third-place overall in his first-ever Tour de France but admitted that the final week had been much harder going than he would have liked.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s battles against illness in the final segment of this year’s Tour have been common knowledge, but up to now it had not been fully confirmed by the Mexican star that he had been affected.

Del Toro relied heavily on teammate and yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar to keep him in the GC favourites group on stage 20’s ultra-hard trek through the Alps and second summit finish at Alpe d’Huez. And the two came through well.

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Fifth at the line alongside Pogačar, Del Toro celebrated with the Slovenian by both of them simultaneously doing his trademark bull’s horns gesture, and there was no doubt their collaboration had brought rich dividends.

Del Toro managed to shake off key best-young-rider rival Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) on the Col de Sarenne, the final major ascent of the day.

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In the process and despite clearly struggling on the last unclassified ascent to Alpe d’Huez, Del Toro came home with 1:40 advantage over Seixas, pushing out his previous 24-second advantage on the Frenchman to 2:14.

“The team were really good to me, I’m very grateful to Tadej. I’ve never been in this kind of situation before, I never felt so much pressure. But pressure is for those who are privileged [in life],” Del Toro told Eurosport in the Alpe d’Huez mixed zone.

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“It’s no secret that the team had difficult moments in the third week, we tried to avoid showing it so that the rivals wouldn’t see it.

“It’s not easy to finish on the podium being sick, so I’m really delighted and very grateful to the team for having done this for me.”

Del Toro’s trademark bull’s horns gesture duplicated on Alpe d’Huez finish by teammate Pogačar as they finish complete top 5 for stage 20 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Already the first Mexican stage winner since Raul Alcala in the 1980s, Del Toro is set to go onto the final podium on Sunday as Mexico’s first-ever GC podium finisher in the Tour de France. But he recognised to Eurosport that Seixas and the Decathlon squad had given him a major run for his money to oust him from the podium.

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“He was really strong, he tried everything. They should celebrate what they achieved as a team, they were pushing hard for this every day and he’s a great champion. I’m just happy the cards fell in my favour.”

It has already been a spectacularly successful season for Del Toro, with victories in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico. After second place and a long spell in the lead in the Giro d’Italia last season, third in the Tour is another major landmark moment.

As Del Toro admitted to Eurosport the scale of his achievements was bound to take a while to sink in, and in the immediate aftermath, all that he knew was that, “right now, I’m in a state of shock”.

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