{"id":677496,"date":"2026-07-06T22:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/677496\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:59:11","slug":"it-was-super-important-to-be-up-there-for-him-isaac-del-toro-pays-back-tadej-pogacar-with-huge-effort-to-set-up-tour-de-france-stage-victory-in-les-angles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/677496\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It was super important to be up there for him’ – Isaac del Toro pays back Tadej Poga\u010dar with huge effort to set up Tour de France stage victory in Les Angles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Payback. Tadej Poga\u010dar helped Isaac del Toro<\/a> win stage 2 of the Tour de France<\/a> in Barcelona, and on Monday the Mexican paid back his team leader for his generosity with a huge effort to set him up for stage 3 victory<\/a> in Les Angles.<\/p>\n

“It’s because of Isaac today. I got some extra power in the final. He committed more than 100% on the final climb,” Poga\u010dar said of Del Toro.<\/p>\n

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“We decided in the middle of the stage to go for the win, and I’m really happy that we started the Tour like this. It’s incredible to finish today.”<\/p>\n

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Poga\u010dar and Del Toro hugged beyond the finish line and enjoyed a special moment behind the podium. On the short 6.5% climb to the finish, Del Toro set an infernal, progressive pace in the final kilometre that lined out and hurt all their rivals and set up Poga\u010dar for his acceleration to the line.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar celebrated as stage winner and also took the yellow jersey<\/a> from rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) thanks to the time bonuses.<\/p>\n

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Del Toro lost four seconds to Poga\u010dar after his huge effort but is still fourth overall, at 24 seconds, and again pulled on the white jersey as best young rider.<\/p>\n

There is a real sense at the Tour de France that Poga\u010dar and Del Toro could finish first and second in Paris, with the Mexican clearly Poga\u010dar’s future heir and a Tour de France winner.<\/p>\n

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Yet Del Toro was happier about Poga\u010dar’s success rather than any personal glory.<\/p>\n

“It was super important to be up there for him,” Del Toro said, Poga\u010dar’s generosity on stage 2 inspiring the payback and loyalty from the Mexican.<\/p>\n

“I’m super happy to see him in yellow. I can’t be more proud that we finished the goal. I’m super happy. Now I get to go on the podium with him. I didn’t think I’d ever do that with him in my life.”<\/p>\n

Del Toro leads Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) in the white jersey competition for best rider aged under 25. He was obliged to wear the green points jersey while leading that competition, but Poga\u010dar now leads the points competition after stage 3, and so under race rules, Vingegaard will wear the green jersey during stage 40 to Foix.<\/p>\n

Del Toro has other objectives than just the white jersey. “The white jersey can be a goal, but I’m here to enjoy things and learn,” he made clear. “I think people can see that every day. I’ll be happy to do as much as I can for Tadej.”<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s biggest bike race deserves world-class coverage. Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our unrivalled reporting of the 2026 Tour de France. From Barcelona through to Paris, our experienced team will bring you breaking news, expert insight, and in-depth coverage from every stage as the battle for the yellow jersey plays out. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Payback. Tadej Poga\u010dar helped Isaac del Toro win stage 2 of the Tour de France in Barcelona, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-677496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}