Tour Down Under: Isaac Del Toro launches late race attack to win stage 2

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Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) launched a late attack in the final chaotic kilometre of stage 2 of the Santos Tour Down Under to take the win in Lobethal. 

The 20-year-old from Mexico claimed the first WorldTour victory of his career in his first WorldTour race, showing his huge talents. 

The final ten kilometre of the stage saw a number of attacks from the peloton after the climb of Fox Creek Hill with 10 kilometres to go. 

Jayco-AlUla’s Luke Plapp kicked off the proceedings and he was joined by Jhonnatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers). The Australian national champion was under team orders not to cooperate with the Down Under Classic winner which doomed the move. Del Toro and and his teammate Finn Fisher-Black attacked to try and make it across but it all came back together with five kilometres to race. 

American champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) made the next attack with Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R) on his wheel. Israel-Premier Tech went to the front to chase the pair, with some of the sprinters in the reduced peloton.  

Then, with just over a kilometre to go, Del Toro accelerated again from the peloton and quickly caught and passed Simmons and Tronchon. 

He went full gas to the finish line with a peloton in full chase and was able to celebrate his first WorldTour win on the line, with the chasers just failing to catch him. Corbin Strong won the sprint for second ahead of Israel-Premier Tech teammate Steve Williams.

“It’s what I wish. I don't know what to even say. It’s so much,” said Del Toro, who was at a loss for words, after crossing the finish line.

“So happy, I'm so tired but I enjoy every moment. The last kilometre was so hard, but I tried to finish,” he explained.

“The final climb was crazy for the team and then I tried to catch the gap from Narvaez and Plapp, but later I stayed in the back, you know, I'm out and, well, the last chance was the little climb in the final and I needed to finish the work.”

Del Toro takes over the general classification with a slim two-second lead on Strong. 

Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), who finished fourth for the second day in a row, moved up to third overall, seven seconds in arrears.

Leader into the stage, Sam Welsford (BORA-hansgrohe) could not keep up with the high speed on the climb and crossed the line 59 seconds behind the winner. The Australian sprinter dropped to 80th place, one minute down.

How it unfolded

Race director Stuart O’Grady gestured for riders to calm down in the neutral zone, where Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) suffered a mechanical.  All 139 riders started, a handful sporting bandages following several spills on the opening stage in Tanunda.

Luke Burns (Australian National Team) was the first to attack, with Doull’s teammate Jardi Van Der Lee joining him. The peloton did not react, and the duo opened a gap of over six minutes. 

Their move was always doomed, however, with the 141.6km undulating stage from Norwood to Lobethal tailored to the elite puncheurs and some sprinters.

The stage included three intermediate climbs, the first at Ashton, which featured a maximum gradient of 17.8 per cent and an average of five per cent. 

Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates) took the first intermediate sprint behind Vander Der Lee and Burns.  Burns’ teammate Tristan Saunders was third behind the duo on the first KOM prime. 

The finish consisted of three laps of a circuit in and around Lobethal including the category two Fox Creek climb, which featured a maximum gradient of 17.8 per cent and an average of 8.8 per cent. 

Burns attacked Van Der Lee to take the second intermediate KOM prime as the peloton behind reduced the gap to 3:19 with 80km remaining, Michael Hepburn (Jayco-Alula) setting the tempo on the front. 

Van Der Lee rolled through the second intermediate sprint on the front, with Burns on his wheel as the peloton held the break at 3:31 with 69km to go. Caleb Ewan (Jayco-Alula) sprinted for third at the prime, beating Del Toro for a one second bonus. 

Dutchman Van Der Lee had a mechanical with 48km remaining, later pacing his way back to Burns, whilst at the back of the peloton Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) lingered to tighten his cleats before moving up again. 

With 43km remaining, Van Der Lee attacked first on the third KOM intermediate, but Burns hit the front about 100 metres from the top, taking maximum points to claim the KOM jersey going into stage three. 

Behind the peloton snaked up the two-lane road lined with gum trees, grass and shrubs, the gap 2:28 as the bunch began the descent off the Fox Creek climb for the second last time. 

With 30km remaining the escape had a 1:36 advantage on the peloton before the last ascent of Fox Creek. 

Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgroghe each put on a rider on the front with 24km to go, the gap reduced to a mere 36 seconds, with the Australian National Team amassing behind them. 

Ewan was spotted at the back of the bunch with 20km left, calmly undergoing a bike change as the two escapees were caught. The Australian sprinter made his way back to the peloton solo. 

The sprinters before the stage had speculated the last run up the Fox Creek climb may prove too tough for them, with the finish line not far from the top of it. 

The peloton was fanned across the road with 13km to go as it began the final ascent, with Visma-Lease A Bike, Jayco-AlUla, the Australian National Team and Julian Alaphilippe’s Soudal-Quick Step team visible at the front.

Soudal-Quick Step set the pace on the steeper slopes of the climb, as riders started to get dropped. 

Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) attacked with 8.5km remaining, Alaphilippe on his wheel before swimming off 200m later. 

Plapp accelerated again, with only Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) able to follow the newly crowned Australian national champion, as overnight leader Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgroghe) was dropped from the back of the bunch. 

Del Toro and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) moved off the front of the bunch, trying to close to Plapp and Narvaez, who appeared to remonstrate on the road. The pair were caught with 5.8km remaining as the peloton regrouped. 

Israel-Premier Tech drove the pace with 4.6km to go. A flurry of attacks and chasing continued until Del Toro made his winning move with one kilometre to go. 

Thee was a new kid on town, a surprise lone winner and a new race leader.

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