Giro d'Italia week two: Can Mexico's starlet Del Toro hold pink jersey to Rome?

New York Times

26-05-2025

One week left — and a wide open battle (for everything but the ciclamino jersey). The Giro d'Italia is set up for dynamite in the Dolomites.
Prodigious youngster Isaac del Toro, 21, is still in pink, he has a teammate chasing desperately, and there are a cabal of contenders in sight of the race lead.
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Over recent stages, we've seen Lidl-Trek soar from glory to despair and back, the pre-race favourite seemingly slip from contention, and the tell-tale signs of intra-team rivalries.
This is what we've learned from the Giro's second week — and what we have to come.
Last Tuesday's damp time-trial did little to shake up the established order — instead, it was Saturday's innocuous stage 14 that turned the leaderboard into a game of snakes and ladders.
With the race route slipping between Italy and Slovenia, the race favourites were clustered alongside the sprinters at the head of the peloton with 30 kilometers left. It had been drizzling throughout the day, and on a tight corner in the Slovenian town of Nova Gorica, down went Bahrain Victorious' Antonio Tiberi, who had been sitting third in the general classification (GC).
Like any crash in the bunch, his fall caused a chain reaction. His fellow Italian, Lidl-Trek's Giulio Ciccone, fell hard on his right side. Initially looking like he would be forced to quit on the roadside, Ciccone eventually rolled in 16 minutes down — his team confirmed on Sunday morning that their climber was too injured to continue.
Several riders were fortunate enough to avoid the pile-up, most significantly Del Toro, who leads the GC by 1.20.
Other beneficiaries were Visma-Lease a Bike's Simon Yates (who moved up to 2nd) and EF Education's Richard Carapaz (up to fourth).
However, a score of other contenders lost around 45 seconds on the Maglia Rosa — including teammate Juan Ayuso, pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic, and the dangerous Egan Bernal. Ayuso had been snapping at Del Toro's heels at around 30 seconds down — he is now 1.26 in arrears.
As for Tiberi? Only Ciccone came off worse than the Bahrain Victorious rider — he came in 1.40 down on Del Toro. Now sitting seventh, more than three minutes down, his podium hopes look distant.
The Giro's social media accounts are not averse to a little humour — so when INEOS Grenadiers' Thymen Arensman caught up with the Latin American attacking trio of Del Toro (Mexico), Bernal (Colombia) and Carapaz (Ecuador), the admin could not resist a wry joke.
'There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't speak Spanish,' they imagined Arensman saying, aping Oasis' Wonderwall.
🗣️ 'There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't speak Spanish' – Probably Thymen Arensman. #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/vRhKuXavcB
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 25, 2025
But like all good humour, an undercurrent of truth lies beneath it. Del Toro, Carapaz, and Bernal have arguably been the three best pure climbers in the race. They animated stage 15 with their attacks on Monte Grappa and Enego, and sit first, fourth, and eighth.
Carapaz has already won a stage, escaping on Castelnovo ne' Monti, while Bernal has shown his best form since winning the Giro in 2021 — only losing time on time-trials and in the stage 14 split — recovering from a near-fatal crash in 2023 in between.
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It would not be strictly accurate to describe this as a breakout race for Latin American climbing talent — that undermines the significance of Colombians Lucho Herrera and Nairo Quintana.
But this is the region's most dominant performance in a Grand Tour — and if Del Toro becomes the first Mexican rider to win a Grand Tour, who knows what new frontiers will open?
In some ways, it is the perfect problem. In others, it threatens to cut a chasm through cycling's most dominant team.
Ayuso confidently entered the Giro with the mantle of UAE's team leader, telling Spanish newspaper Marca that 'anything but top three would be a disappointment'. But that status was somewhat self-chosen, with UAE stating Ayuso was co-leader alongside Yates.
In the event, Del Toro, initially selected as a super-domestique, took advantage of a fractured race situation in Tuscany on stage nine, taking the pink jersey.
Despite his youth, the Mexican has scarcely set a foot wrong since, taking bonus seconds at will, positioning himself well, and even climbing well enough that he felt comfortable putting on a gilet mid-attack.
Del Toro: 😎 Everyone else: 😰
The Maglia Rosa looked relaxed while his rivals were attacking on Monte Grappa on Stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia – and even found time to put a gilet on.
📸 Sprint Cycling
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🇮🇹 #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/69z1Dswyhz
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 25, 2025
It leaves UAE in an enviable but difficult tactical position, with Del Toro leading Ayuso by 1.26.
There have already been signs of mixed messaging. The most obvious was when Del Toro appeared to deliberately gift bonus seconds to Ayuso on stage 14, prioritising his team-mate's race over his own, but others may have been more significant.
For example, on both stages nine and 15, UAE have chased an escape group containing Del Toro hard. In trying to minimise Ayuso's losses, they spurned the opportunity for Del Toro to have an even larger lead.
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Yet Del Toro has beaten Ayuso on the past three uphill finishes — at what point do UAE throw their weight behind the younger man as the lead rider?
If he wins, Del Toro will become the youngest Giro winner since the legendary Fausto Coppi in 1940.
Their strategy suggests they fear Del Toro, despite his huge potential in the mountains, will lose time in the third week. Another reading might imply UAE believe they can get both cyclists onto the podium.
But what will happen if one rider slips back when the other wants support from team-mates to attack — who will get UAE's support? And, if this gap remains, how close to Rome will the race get before Del Toro is the team's unquestioned leader?
It is the compelling question of the final week.
Roglic entered the Giro as favourite — but has shipped small but significant amounts of time throughout the second week.
He was caught up in a tangle with Tom Pidcock on the white roads of Tuscany last Sunday, and though he pulled back some time on Tuesday's time-trial, those seconds disappeared once again after falling with other leading contenders on stage 14.
Most concerning, however, was his showing one day later — where he was dropped by Carapaz's acceleration on the slopes of Enego. Some 20 riders managed to stay in the group ahead of him — the Slovenian seemingly lacking any energy to haul himself back towards the leaders on the subsequent plateau.
He has slipped from fifth to 10th, 3.53 behind Del Toro. Such gaps have been bridged before, but Roglic has not shown the form to give his fans any realistic hope. He thrives on surviving a high pace on long climbs — but lacking team-mates, and with riders such as Del Toro, Carapaz, and Ayuso looking far punchier, a podium finish looks like his best-case outcome.
Will he finish the Giro? 'There is no point in hiding anymore that he doesn't feel well, that he's in pain,' Red Bull's directeur sportif Christian Pomer told The Cycling Podcast, referring to his crash injuries. 'We tried to downplay it a little, and it worked until today, but today we saw the truth.'
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Roglic has publicly said that the Tour de France is his main target this season — the only Grand Tour he has never won — but he looks some way off race-winning form. His only solace may be in seeing this race as an extended training block — but three weeks in the legs and two crashes are hardly ideal preparation.
Tadej Pogacar, resting up from his outstanding Monument season, spent his Sunday looking untroubled at the Monaco Grand Prix — on this month's evidence, Jonas Vingegaard will remain his prime challenger at the Tour.
We spent the first week congratulating Lidl-Trek on their Giro — and they have fought through disappointment to show their class.
Daan Hoole, the tallest rider in the race at 6ft 6in (198cm), was one of the hidden stars behind Mads Pedersen's stage wins, controlling the peloton in the early stages and keeping the pace high enough to shed specialist sprinters.
Now he has his own reward — taking a surprise win in the stage 10 time-trial, capitalising on the best of the day's weather conditions to pip INEOS Grenadiers' Josh Tarling by seven seconds. Hoole is the reigning Dutch time-trial champion, but this was comfortably the biggest result of his career.
The breakout rider of the Giro, Mathias Vacek, continues to edge closer to a stage win after almost escaping with Romain Bardet on the stage to Vicenza.
But that stage instead was won by Lidl-Trek's star man Pedersen, whose form has rendered the battle for the ciclamino points jersey all but over. Stage 13 was his best performance of the lot. On Vicenza's short but sharply uphill sprint, the Dane beat out specialist climbers and puncheurs to take his fourth stage of the first two weeks. Pedersen has more chances to come on stages 18 and 21, too.
But Ciccone's withdrawal on stage 14 was a major blow. At the time, the Italian was sitting seventh in the standings, 2.20 off the lead. His mission this Giro was to prove that he could be a genuine GC contender — and the Italian looked set for his first ever top 10 at a Grand Tour.
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On Sunday, domestique Carlos Verona joined the breakaway — likely only freed up due to Ciccone's injury. He was stronger than any of his companions, escaping solo with over 40km remaining to take victory by 22 seconds. It was just the second win of his professional career.
'We lost Cicco yesterday,' he told TNT Sports post-stage. 'Today I was riding with him in my mind and my legs. I was pulling with all my heart for the team.'
You can't lose with support like this 😍
Ride inside the Lidl-Trek team car as Carlos Verona soared to Stage 15 victory at the Giro d'Italia with a daring solo attack 💥🏆
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🇮🇹 #GirodItalia @LidlTrek pic.twitter.com/brmCIO1nHl
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 25, 2025
It leaves Lidl-Trek as winners of six of the 15 stages — a staggering 40 per cent.