UAE Team Emirates-XRG painted a picture of positivity even after losing the Giro d’Italia lead on the penultimate day, choosing to focus on what Isaac del Toro has achieved in this race rather than his failure to win overall.
Whilst Visma-Lease a Bike celebrated and EF Education-EasyPost criticised UAE’s tactics, rather than any tactical hand-wringing or blaming, Del Toro’s team honed in on the success of the Mexican rider.
It’s unusual to see a team as happy as UAE were on Saturday after losing the lead of a Grand Tour at the very last minute, especially in a situation where in many ways, it seemed more like a racing tactic than a lack of legs that had scuppered the team’s plans. But they celebrated, nonetheless.
“I congratulated Isaac on what he’s done at the Giro in the last three weeks,” team manager Mauro Gianetti recounted of what he said to Del Toro after the line.
“I told him he should be proud of what he’s achieved. He’s become a different and better rider.”
Del Toro started the race planning to be a domestique for pre-race leader Juan Ayuso, but took the pink jersey on the gravel road to Siena on stage 9. After Ayuso’s fitness declined through injury, he then moved into sole leadership.
The 21-year-old stepped up fully to the challenge and will ultimately be rewarded with a stage win, winner in the best young rider’s classification and second overall in his second-ever Grand Tour. Long-term, he’s the youngest podium finisher at the Giro in 85 years, which for his team is more important than his capitulation on stage 20.
“What he’s done in these three weeks is something exceptional,” Gianetti said. “I am very, very proud of him, of the team, and of how fast he’s learned. Of course, it would have been better to win the Giro, but certainly we’ve discovered a great rider.”
When asked if Del Toro might be a ‘possible’ phenomenon, his team boss was clear that he thinks he is already there.
“I don’t think it’s just possible, he is a phenomenon and that’s for sure,” Gianetti said, adding that this result will likely change the immediate future of Del Toro’s career.
“Now he’ll have to learn to deal with all the attention and expectation, he’ll have to race up front, perhaps a little further up front.”
UAE also refused to be drawn into the blame game around whether Del Toro or Richard Carapaz should have worked together or not, suggesting that the young Mexican just didn’t have the strength on the day.
“He did what he had to do, but in the end his legs were missing,” DS Fabio Baldato told Bici.PRO.
The only inter-team rivalry that UAE did indulge was their ongoing Grand Tour battle with Visma-Lease a Bike, the team they’ve gone up against at the Tour de France with Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard for the last four years.
Though neither rider were in Italy, it was a Visma rider that beat a UAE rider on stage 20, with Gianetti saying it was “a little bit of revenge for the Tour” from the Dutch team. In any case, Grand Tour hostilities are set to resume in France next month.
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