Mexican Cyclist Isaac Del Toro Is Racing In The 2025 Giro D’Italia

Twenty-one-year-old Mexican cycling phenomenon Isaac Del Toro is racing in the 2025 Giro d’Italia. The Giro, Italy’s version of the Tour de France, is professional cycling’s 2^nd most prestigious multi-day stage race. Many fans and riders consider it to be the world’s hardest road cycling competition. This year Del Toro will have the chance to see how he compares to former Giro general classification winners Richard Carapaz (Ecuardor) and Nairo Quintana (Colombia.) Cycling fans will get the chance to see how Del Toro’s skills and ability have evolved since his epic performance at the 2023 Tour l’Avenir. His poise power at l’Avenir are worth remembering and revisiting.

Tour l’Avenir

With 4.3 kilometers still to go on Stage 6 of the 2023 Tour l’Avenir, Del Toro, Mexico’s emerging cycling star, moves to the front of the lead group fighting towards the finish line. He is working his way up towards the stage’s finish line near the top of the Col de la Loze, a mountain road that is respected as one of the toughest challenges in professional cycling. The climb up France’s seventh tallest mountain road is only 23 kilometers long, but contains a number of punishingly steep ramps and tops out at 2,299 meters above sea level. On a short stage with a challenging finish, Del Toro has a chance to test his legs. He advances, temporarily leading the race, drawing attention to himself. It’s a critical moment. A courageous breakaway attack might earn him a stage win and attention from a global audience of fans and select group of top professional team directors, but an embarrassing implosion might end his chance of contending for the general classification and hurt his budding reputation as a serious contender. Feeling strong, Del Toro relishes the moment. He stands, his thin 5’11 frame rocking over his bike as he accelerates, pushing the pace and forcing his rivals to hold his wheel. He holds his momentum through a flat corner and pedals harder. An expansive view of the French Alps covered in a wispy summer haze stretches out behind him. With nearly 1700 meters of elevation gained so far in the climb, some of his rivals begin to falter, dropping off the back of the group as Del Toro, not yet 20 years old and still far from reaching his true potential, pushes on with his savage attack. Only two riders hold his wheel. With 2.9 kilometers to go Del Toro eases up for a moment and top American prospect Matthew Riccitiello counterattacks, pulling ahead alone.

Del Toro knows that every rider arrives at with some idea of a plan he would like to follow. For many, however, those hopes and schemes are dashed by misfortune or the unrelenting reality of competing against the world’s top cyclists. Trailing Riccitello, Del Toro knows he is now in an ideal position. Mentally he finds it easier to chase than to venture off alone in front and set his own pace. Riccitello, one year older than Del Toro, has already ridden the 2023 Giro d’Italia, even bagging an 11^th place finish in a time trial against many of the world’s best riders. Del Toro respects his rival. With 2.2 kilometers to go, Del Toro catches up with Riccitello. He keeps pedaling. He knows that in the final two kilometers the road reaches a punishing 24 percent gradient. His confidence in his ability to compete in this terrain remains strong.

As he and Riccitello continue to fight their way up the road, the race is now a one-on-one contest, Mexico vs the United States. With 2.1 kilometers left in the stage, as the road winds upwards over a steep ramp, Del Toro moves back out in front, bobbing his head as he stands and cranks the pedals. But, with one kilometer to go the American attacks, straining to eke out an advantage and hold it. Over the final few hundred meters Del Toro hangs on. Both riders are now battling the steep gradient and neither knows if the other will crack. In the final 100 meters, Del Toro surges ahead, through a corral of fans banging on the sides of the roadside barriers, and finishes one second and barely a bike length in front of Riccitello. Crossing the line Del Toro lets out a scream, throwing his hands up in celebration. What he feels is catharsis. He can’t yet quite believe he won. He had a plan. He executed it. He thought he could make up time and move in the general classification. But, at the critical moment Riccitello couldn’t or didn’t match his final effort. Del Toro is collapses into seated position on the grass with a towel draped over his shoulders and a l’Avenir stage victory in the record books.

Mexico City

On a sunny afternoon in September 2023, Del Toro sits down at a sidewalk table at a restaurant in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma to discuss his l’Avenir performance and his outlook as he prepares to join the pro peloton and ride alongside two-time-Tour-de-France-winner Tadej Pogačar on the UAE Emirates squad for the 2024 season. He isn’t yet sure when or if he’ll be selected to ride in any of the Grand Tours, but he’s excited for what lies ahead.

Friendly and fast-talking, Del Toro exudes quiet confidence. He is analytical and humble. Little about his personality is bull-like, as his taurine last name might suggest. He seems acutely aware of how his own hard work and guidance from his family and coaches have led him to this point.

Del Toro started pedaling at a young age.

“I started in cycling because my mom wanted athletic kids. At seven or eight years old I started training like an athlete, eating healthy. I loved cycling,” he says. Mid-way through elementary school he started entering youth road and mountain bike races. He worked hard practicing sprinting event though it wasn’t his natural strength.

Soon, he found himself bored in school, waiting for afternoon rides.

“I was dying to bike. It was something I loved to do,” he explains.

At fourteen he competed in Mexico’s Youth Cycling National Championship.

He embraced the lifestyle and left his family and school friends behind to attend training camps.

“I was developing. I loved what I was doing,” he says.

Although Mexico is known globally for its beaches and the tropical ecosystems that line its southern coasts, it is also a mountainous country. The 5,636-meter-tall Pico de Orizaba in the state of Veracruz is taller than all but two of the highest peaks in North America. Amateur and pro cyclists who live in the area around Mexico City regularly train on roads that top out at 3,000 to 4,000 meters above sea level.

But Del Toro doesn’t derive his excellence from a happy accident of geography. He is not from a mountain town. He grew up riding laps up the short hill by his house in the seaside town of Ensenada, south of Tijuana in the state of Baja California.

But, as he continued to perform well in youth races, Del Toro ventured further and further from his home town.

“When training I always do 100 percent of what they ask and a little more. I want to get better every day,” he says.

In his late teens, he finally had the chance to visit and ride some of Mexico’s epic climbs including the gravel road up the 4,631-meter-tall Nevado de Toluca and the mountain road through the Desierto de Los Leones park on the outskirts of Mexico City, which reaches a maximum elevation of 3,065 meters above sea level.

“I like training at altitude. I know how my body reacts. It allows me to push my heart and lungs to the maximum,” he says.

In 2020 he seized an opportunity to race join Mexico’s AR Monex cycling team and race in UCI events in Europe. But his upward trajectory was stymied by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I went in 2020. It was the pandemic year. Everything was canceled. There were no races. Everything was closed. We came back to Mexico,” he says.

He spent the year riding Mexico’s roads.

In 2021 he made is debut in Europe, competing in the Men’s Junior Road Race and Time Trial World Championship events in Belgium. He also won the Bikeland cyclocross race in Italy.

But a week before the 2022 Tour l’Avenir he crashed and broke his femur. He spent twenty days in the hospital and went back home scared about the risk of crashing again.

During the first few months of 2023 he worked to regain his fitness and confidence. His Tour l’Avenir performance was an act of redemption and a return to form.

Looking back on his Stage 6 l’Avenir battle, Del Toro says, “I knew what I had to do. I knew how I needed to ride. When I got to the last climb. I knew it was a mental battle. With six kilometers to go, I knew I had the ability. I started to enjoy it, to climb at my own pace.”

Even when the narrow road snaked over the steepest gradients in the final stretch his confidence never faltered.

“I wanted to give everything I had. When I saw it was 180 meters to the finish line, I launched my sprint, thinking of the seconds I wanted to win back. When I looked back and saw Riccitello was already sitting down, I couldn’t believe that my first road victory would be on Col de la Loze. Honestly it was so big, it was a moment of catharsis. I shouted out my frustration for everything that happened this year. It was beautiful,” he explains.

The victory was a confirmation of his raw talent but also his ability to race tactically.

“It was the most intelligent race I’ve done in my life. I have the ability to do it. But, up until that moment I doubted myself a lot,” he says.

On stage 7B he came in second place. Riccitello, still the GC leader, fell to ninth.

Heading into stage 8, Del Toro sat in second place in GC and he knew he wanted to seize the top position in the general classification.

“I [knew I] could lose everything. But I don’t want second place. I didn’t train for second place. We didn’t come here for that,” he says.

He went to bed confident and calm. He slept deeply and woke feeling well-rested.

He had one simple message in mind.

“I want to win l’Avenir. I’m going for everything,” he thought.

Second place wasn’t enough. He wanted to walk away in the top position in the race that is widely regarded as the most prestigious multi-stage road racing event for young riders under 23 years of age.

On stage 8, he rode hard and noticed Riccitello trailing behind. He pushed his advantage and hurtled down the descent from the 2,700-meter-tall peak of the road passing over Col d’Iseran, relying on his experience racing mountain bikes to calm his nerves and ignore the precipitous ravine on the road’s lefthand side.

He started to formulate a plan.

“I told the peloton, ‘I don’t want to win the stage, I want to win the General Classification. We all have to work,’” he says.

Riding in the front group with Riccitello fighting to reconnect, Del Toro pushed the stage leaders to pedal hard.

“On the penultimate climb, I accelerated,” he says.

He crossed the line just behind Italy’s Giulio Pellizarri.

Then he waited for Riccitello. He knew the American rider could be capable of making a strong final effort to cut into the time gap. He worried whether he had enough of an advantage.

“It’s cycling. It’s a fight to the death,” he says.

“They said a minute had passed. I only needed 55 seconds. I screamed with happiness. I couldn’t believe it. It was beautiful. It was incredible,” Del Toro explains.

He became the first Mexican rider to win the Tour l’Avenir, an achievement he shares with some notable cycling legends including Greg Lemond and Egan Bernal.

After the race he managed only to tell an interviewer “It’s incredible!” before burying his face in his hand, choking back tears.

For Del Toro, the victory helped cement his confidence.

“I’ve always been a tough person mentally, competitive. At the starting line I knew what I had to do. I was very focused. I was competing to win. But obviously there’s doubt there. Nothing is guaranteed in cycling. We can get flats. We can crash. Nothing is certain. The doubt is always there. Riccitello could beat me. But, [I thought] I’m good. I’m focused. I’m cool. I have everything [I need] to do thing well,” he says.

Del Toro has absolute confidence is his training. He knows he puts in the work necessary to win. He also has a relentless approach to race preparation and considering strategies that could work.

“I’m a person who analyzes everything,” he says.

He tries to learn what he can from watching rider interviews and race footage.

“I like how Vingegaard races. I like Pogačar’s aggression. I like Van der Poel’s [ability] to ride at the limit and how dominant and unrelenting Max Pederson is. I like to try and take the best from each. Sometimes I see the KOMs they get and I think it’s incredible,” he says.

Superhero

Looking ahead, he wants to keep learning and keep growing as a person and as a rider.

The idea that moving forward he’ll be wearing the white UAE Emirates jersey and training and racing alongside Pogačar still seems surreal.

“Getting to a professional team and putting on a jersey [feels like] Spiderman getting dressed,” he confesses.

It’s a chance for a teenager to feel like a superhero.

He can’t predict what his career will look like or how he’ll perform when he finally gets to race against the world’s best cyclists at the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia but he is committed to working hard and embracing the opportunity.

“I want to enjoy it. I’m achieving my dreams,” he says.

For more on cycling in Mexico, check out this Forbes article from 2020.