Isaac del Toro is set to finish third overall in his first-ever Tour de France after Tadej Pogačar helped keep him in the GC favourites group on stage 20 at Alpe d'Huez. The 22-year-old shook off Paul Seixas on the Col de Sarenne and crossed the line alongside Pogačar, then raised the bull's horns gesture with his teammate.
That finish carried Del Toro to a 1:40 advantage over Seixas on the stage and stretched his margin from 24 seconds to 2:14 overall, enough to lock in a podium place that no Mexican rider had reached before in the Tour de France GC. Del Toro was already the first Mexican stage winner since Raul Alcala in the 1980s, but this result moves him into a different lane entirely.
He said in the Alpe d'Huez mixed zone that the team had been really good to him and that he was very grateful to Pogačar, adding that he had never been in this kind of situation before and had never felt so much pressure. He also said pressure is for those who are privileged in life, a line that landed with the force of someone who had just survived the hardest part of the race and knew it.
The harder truth sat just under the celebration. Del Toro said the team had difficult moments in the third week and tried to keep them hidden so rivals would not see it, and he acknowledged that it is not easy to finish on the podium while being sick. He did not spell out the illness, but he made clear it had been enough to complicate the final stretch even as UAE Team Emirates-XRG protected the result.
Pogačar had already sealed his fifth Tour de France title, and on stage 20 he did more than ride for himself: he shepherded Del Toro through the mountain finale and into history. Del Toro said Paul Seixas and the Decathlon squad tried everything to force him off the podium, but in the end the cards fell his way. On Sunday, he is set to stand on the final podium as Mexico’s first-ever Tour de France GC finisher in the top three.
