{"id":679472,"date":"2026-07-08T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679472\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:46:11","slug":"before-isaac-del-toro-there-was-raul-alcala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/679472\/","title":{"rendered":"Before Isaac del Toro, there was Ra\u00fal Alcal\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaac del Toro\u2019s victory on Stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de France saw the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider win Mexico\u2019s first Tour de France stage in 36 years, becoming only the second Mexican to taste victory at the Tour after Ra\u00fal Alcal\u00e1.<\/p>\n

Alcal\u00e1 opened the doors for representation at the highest level when he became the first rider from Mexico to compete at the Tour in 1986, but the man from Monterrey wasn\u2019t just there to make up the numbers. <\/p>\n

In just his second Tour in 1987, one tamed by Irishman Stephen Roche, 23-year-old Alcal\u00e1, riding for the 7-Eleven team, impressed, finishing the race with a pair of second place finishes on his way to winning the white jersey and coming in ninth overall on general classification.<\/p>\n

After a trio of top tens in 1988, Alcal\u00e1 entered the 1989 Tour itching for a breakthrough. It would arrive on one of the longest stages of the race, a 241km venture over rolling hills finishing on the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Belgian Grand Prix. In the decisive front group of five, which featured Jesper Skibby, Marc Madiot, Patrick Tolhoek and Thierry Marie, a determined Alcal\u00e1 attacked in the final three kilometres and the gap stuck, taking raising his arms in the air with a five-second lead. <\/p>\n

He had a further three top tens in that year\u2019s race and he finished eighth on GC after the iconic final stage time-trial in Paris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Graham Watson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

His second victory would come the following year on the 61.5km flat individual time-trial. Alcal\u00e1 was a proven time-triallist by this point having come into the Tour with three wins against the clock that season \u2013 including two at the Tour de Trump<\/a> \u2013 and he began the race with third in the prologue and his PDM-Ultimate-Concorde team came second on the team time-trial on Stage 2 (that year\u2019s route had three ITTs, a prologue and a TTT, how things change). On Stage 7\u2019s test to Epinal Alcal\u00e1 bested Miguel Indur\u00e1in, Gianni Bugno, Pedro Delgado and Greg LeMond, putting 1min 24sec on Indur\u00e1in in second. The Mexican had a consistent three weeks, sticking in the top ten for almost the full race as he ended once again eighth overall. <\/p>\n

A gulf of time stood between Alcal\u00e1 and Del Toro \u2013 36 long years. But at last Mexico has another real talent to celebrate and the 22-year-old is on a collision course with superstardom. <\/p>\n

It’s safe to say Mexico will have plenty more victories to celebrate in the future, but before Del Toro, there was Alcal\u00e1, Mexico’s first Tour de France stage winner.<\/p>\n

Pro cycling in 1990\u2026<\/p>\n

Milan-San Remo: Gianni Bugno<\/p>\n

Tour of Flanders: Moreno Argentin<\/p>\n

Paris-Roubaix: Eddy Planckaert<\/p>\n

Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge: Eric Van Lancker<\/p>\n

Il Lombardia: Gilles Delion<\/p>\n

Giro d\u2019Italia: Gianni Bugno <\/p>\n

Giro d\u2019Italia Women: Catherine Marsal <\/p>\n

Tour de France: Greg LeMond<\/p>\n

Tour de la C.E.E. f\u00e9minin: Catherine Marsal <\/p>\n

Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a: Marco Giovannetti <\/p>\n

World Championships: Rudy Dhaenens (Belgium), Catherine Marsal (France)<\/p>\n

The world in 1990\u2026<\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years<\/p>\n

The Reunification of Germany<\/p>\n

Workers from the United Kingdom and France meet in the middle of the Channel Tunnel<\/p>\n

Hubble Space Telescope launched<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isaac del Toro\u2019s victory on Stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de France saw the UAE Team Emirates-XRG…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109610,101,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-679472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-isaac-del-toro","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679472","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=679472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}