![\"Isaac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/isaac-del-toro-tour-de-francia-2.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The strategy was already evident on the stage to Plateau de Solaison, where Poga\u010dar not only tightened his grip on the lead but also helped improve Del Toro\u2019s position on general classification. The Mexican is chasing the podium in only his third Grand Tour, after finishing runner-up at the Giro d\u2019Italia last year.<\/p>\n
For Matx\u00edn, Del Toro\u2019s most dangerous rival isn\u2019t ahead but right behind. The UAE director believes Paul Seixas will be the Mexican\u2019s key opponent for third place and for the white jersey of best young rider.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Isaac del Toro, a star of world cycling<\/p>\n
Paul Seixas the main threat to podium<\/p>\n
The Frenchman, only 19, is delivering an exceptional Tour on his Grand Tour debut and has shown the poise to compete with the world\u2019s best climbers. After losing some time on the last mountain day, Seixas made clear he is not giving up. \u201cI\u2019ve lost some time and the white jersey, but I\u2019m still in the fight for the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n
All signs point to the duel between Del Toro and Seixas being one of the highlights of the Tour\u2019s final week and the start of a rivalry that could shape the coming years.<\/p>\n
Although Del Toro still has Remco Evenepoel ahead of him, UAE see it as very difficult to reach second place. The Belgian holds close to a minute in hand, has a favourable time trial, and showed clear improvement in the high mountains during the second week.<\/p>\n
The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe leader also has the support of Florian Lipowitz, who now seems fully committed to a deluxe domestique role after early doubts over the team\u2019s leadership. Among the podium contenders, Juan Ayuso cannot be ruled out either. He remains relatively close to Del Toro and now faces terrain far better suited to his strengths.<\/p>\n
The Lidl-Trek leader hits the final week with a very solid structure, although the team is also chasing another major target: the points classification with Mads Pedersen, which could shape parts of their strategy.<\/p>\n
UAE Team Emirates-XRG know what it takes to place two riders in the Tour\u2019s top three. They did it in 2023, when Adam Yates finished third overall.<\/p>\n
That edition, however, ended with Jonas Vingegaard\u2019s victory. Now the outlook is even brighter for the Emirati squad: Pogacar has the yellow jersey all but secured and the team believe Isaac del Toro can join him on the Paris podium, sealing one of the formation\u2019s biggest collective successes in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The strategy was already evident on the stage to Plateau de Solaison, where Poga\u010dar not only tightened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109610,101,8782,6549,12183,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-703014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-isaac-del-toro","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703014","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=703014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}