Twenty-one-year-old Isaac del Toro arrived in Durres, Albania, in early May as a young rider racing his first ever Giro d'Italia.
Days later, the calm and cool del Toro was once again being compared to Tadej Pogačar, his dominating teammate who swept two out of three Grand Tours last year, and whom many consider to be the greatest cyclist of all time.
Now, del Toro leads the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's most prestigious races, with only two days until finishing in Rome, the Giro’s endpoint.
The young rider who grew up mountain biking in Baja, Mexico, is the first Mexican cyclist to ever wear the pink jersey (the jersey that the leader of the race wears) at the Giro.
He currently has a comfortable 43-second lead on team EF Education-Easy Post's Richard Carapaza.
When Carapaz won the Giro in 2019, del Toro was just a teenager.
On Friday, he beat Carapaz to the finish line, gaining a few more seconds on the 32-year-old Ecuadorian rider.
"I think tomorrow will be different," Carapaz said after the race.
Del Toro emerged as the race leader on the grueling gravel stage of the Giro, halfway through the Grand Tour, when he dropped his UAE Team Emirates teammate, Juan Ayuso, and battled Wout van Aert to the finish line in Siena to take the pink jersey.
Up until then, del Toro was riding in support of Ayuso, who began the Giro as a favorite. Del Toro’s decision to gain time on Ayuso during the gravel stage and his surprising ascent to the top sparked rumors of internal conflict between the two riders.
After stage 9 it was unclear who would lead team UAE. Del Toro had never been tested as a race leader over a three-week Grand Tour. Ayuso held the title of the youngest rider ever to reach the podium of a Grand Tour.
But ultimately, del Toro proved he was the stronger rider.
After a couple of crashes and a bee sting to the face that limited his vision to one eye, Aysuo abandoned the Giro on stage 18, cementing del Toro as the undisputed leader for the team UAE.
During the final week of the Giro, fans from his hometown of Ensenada flew to Italy to witness the young rider make history. Back in his home country, President Claudia Sheinbaum cheered him on.
“It’s quite nice, no?” del Toro said with a satisfying grin on his face when asked by a reporter what he thought about being recognized by the Mexican president.
It’s that boyish charm and his calm, yet explosive, demeanor on his bike that reminds people of 26-year-old Pogačar.
Win or lose, del Toro has established himself as one of the most promising professional cyclists out there, and it will be interesting to see how he performs for the rest of the season.
After Friday’s second-place finish, del Toro has remained in the pink jersey for 10 stages and is 344 km away from becoming the first rider from Mexico to win a Grand Tour.
On Saturday, riders will face a challenging mountain stage in the heat that will likely decide who wins the Giro d’Italia.
The stage features nearly 5,000 km of climbing, including the infamous Colle delle Finestre, an hour-long ascent late in the stage that could drastically impact the leaderboard.
With a 43-second lead on Carrapaz and a 1 minute and 21-second lead on team Visma Lease a Bike’s Simon Yates, del Toro is well positioned to win the Giro. But a bad day on Saturday could be devastating for the Mexican cyclist.
The Giro will conclude on a flat stage on Sunday, which is unlikely to have a significant impact on the general classification leaderboard that del Toro currently leads, in Italy’s capital city of Rome.
