When Richard Carapaz attacked on the Colle delle Finestre and Isaac del Toro and Simon Yates got back to him, del Toro then allowed Yates ride away to the race lead, and GC victory, as he marked Carapaz for 2nd place (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has said he would have attacked after Simon Yates on the day the British rider took overall victory at the Giro d’Italia from him if he had clearer information from his team car.

The Mexican rider let Yates (Visma Lease a Bike) ride off up the road on the Colle delle Finestre on the penultimate stage, opting instead to mark Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).

The strangest, and most costly, tactics of the year saw Yates work his way up the climb, onto the next one, opening a massive gap – of over five minutes on the line. He raced into the maglia rosa as del Toro tracked Carapaz to be sure the Ecuadorian would not beat him for 2nd place overall.

Del Toro lost the pink jersey to Yates, who went into the last stage with an advantage of 3:56 over the young Mexican, and won the race outright into Rome the following day.

Del Toro wins stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia while leading the race overall, though he ultimately lost general classification victory with crazy tactics

On stage 20, when he made his move, Yates had Visma Lease a Bike team mate Wout van Aert up the road in the early move. When he heard Yates had attacked del Toro and Carapaz, Van Aert waited for him and gave him huge assistance in opening the gap.

But now del Toro has said the staff in his team car did not immediately tell him Yates had joined forces with Van Aert. He claims if he had known that, he would have attacked to close down the Yates attack before the gap got too big.

“I didn’t follow straight away,” del Toro said of Carapaz attacking early on Colle delle Finestre, dropping him and Yates, though both eventually got back to him.

“It’s an hour-long climb, and that effort from EF made no sense. Only when Brandon McNulty and Rafal Majka were gone did I bridge across.

“Carapaz had shown the best legs in the race, so on the radio they told me to watch him. I think I’d do it differently now, but I made mistakes, some down to inexperience.”

Isaac del Toro enjoyed an incredible season, especially in the second half of the campaign, taking 18 victories including this one at Gran Piemonte a couple of weeks ago (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Del Toro added by the time his team told him Van Aert was towing Yates along, opening the gap for him, it was too late to close him down with a quick surge of pace, especially with Carapaz in tow.

“When the radio told me Yates was up the road, and that Van Aert was too, Simon already had 55 seconds,” del Toro told GCN in Spain. “That shocked me. They should’ve told me about Van Aert when he had ten seconds, and I’d have said: let’s attack, let’s try,” he explained, adding he had forgotten Van Aert was up the road.

“I think from the car they didn’t want me to go over the limit and risk finishing fifth or sixth,” del Toro said. “In the end we only lost one place, but the small mistakes cost us dearly. I made a tactical error, I forgot about the details, like Van Aert.”

However, del Toro also said when Carapaz attacked and initially got clear alone, he knew he was in trouble when Yates got back on as he was certain they would both take turns to attack him.

“When Simon came back, I knew I’d lose the Giro,” he said. “They both wanted to attack, and with their weight and altitude strengths they had the advantage. I’m proud of my Giro, but not of finishing second. I could have won, and that’s made me stronger for the future.”

Though the Giro loss was a major blow, especially the manner he lost it, and after leading the race for 11 stages, del Toro went on to have sensational season, just his second as a World Tour rider. The 21-year-old won 18 races, including last week’s TT and road race crowns at the Mexican championships.