Isaac del Toro had a split-second decision to make. “Either I crash myself, or I go into Tadej,” the Mexican said of the moment when the peloton overshot a corner on stage 15 of the Tour de France, the same moment in which Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour ended.
The natural reflexes of self-preservation may have kicked in, but they were overridden by the sense of duty to his master.
“So I crashed myself,” Del Toro stated, as if it wasn’t really a choice at all.
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Del Toro took the tumble for his UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader, Tadej Pogačar, and received instant payback. With Vingegaard out of the race, the whole tactical complexion of the Tour changed in an instant, and without his closest and biggest rival to worry about, Pogačar set about turning the tables and working for his chief domestique.
We’ve already seen Pogačar setting up Del Toro for a stage win early in this Tour, but the yellow jersey pacing a teammate up an hors-catégorie summit finish was a remarkable sight to behold.
“It’s crazy that this guy really wants to commit to help me,” Del Toro said. “It’s like an insane guy, insane person. I really tried to commit today.”
As the pair of them sailed clear, only Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) could follow, and the trio would sprint it out at the top, though UAE didn’t finish the job off. Del Toro was elected to sprint, but Evenepoel surged clear of him in sight of the line, and while Pogačar skipped into the Belgian’s wheel to mark him, he didn’t come around him, and it even looked like he was holding something back.
“Maybe I did quite a few mistakes in the final, but I’m super happy how it went. We just need to do a little better in the final and everything will be perfect.“
Still, Del Toro could be mightily pleased with the gains he made on general classification, which put him back in a podium position. Del Toro found 52 seconds on key rivals Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Red Bull's Florian Lipowitz, and so the Mexican is now third overall, 58 seconds behind Evenepoel and 25 seconds in front of 4th-placed Seixas.
Having finished second behind Pogačar on the Markstein on Saturday, Del Toro is back to his best and a clear contender to make it two UAE riders on the podium in Paris.
However, there will be slight question marks over the after-effects of the crash, which perhaps was more severe than it first seemed.
“I was pretty much ok, honestly, but afterwards I started to feel pain in my back and left leg,” Del Toro said.
“I was happy to commit with the team and stick to the plan, but I had an extra pain today in mind and the body."
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