Isaac Del Toro of the UAE team won the second stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. The route took place in Spain, from Tarragona to Barcelona. The leader of the team Tadej Pogacar came second, and Jonas Vingegaard keeps the yellow jersey.
Published on: 05/07/2026 - 18:37
First participation in the Tour de France for Isaac Del Toro who is already causing a sensation. The Mexican Isaac Del Toro, from the UAE team, won the second stage of the 113th edition of the Grande Boucle on Sunday July 5.
A victory offered on a plate by the leader of the UAE team Tadej Pogacar, second, at the top of Montjuic hill, in Barcelona, where Jonas Vingegaard retained the yellow jersey.
Isaac Del Toro, 22, crossed the line as winner ahead of Tadej Pogacar who did everything to leave the victory to his lieutenant at UAE and looked happier than if he had won himself.
Remco Evenepoel, third, and Vingegaard, fourth, finished in the same time, three seconds ahead of Dane Mattias Skjelmose. Frenchman Paul Seixas finished ninth, also three seconds behind.
Tadej Pogacar, who remained wise in the final while we expected an attack from him during the three laps of the circuit in Barcelona, exploded with joy when passing the finish to tap the shoulders of his young disciple, while Del Toro pointed his fingers at his leader to thank him.
The Mexican then collapsed to the ground from fatigue, before the two men loudly celebrated their collective work, started at the entrance to the circuit by their teammate Brandon McNulty who considerably reduced the peloton.
Plan B for UAE
This is the first victory in the Tour for Isaac Del Toro. Recent winner of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, second in the Giro in 2025, he could claim a leadership role in any team and constitutes a solid plan B in this Tour if ever a problem happens to Tajed Pogacar.
Everything came down to the very last 800 meter ramp at 7% leading to the finish in front of the Olympic stadium, where the main leaders explained themselves in a dizzying noise, while punchers like Mathieu van der Poel had already been eliminated.
In the general classification, Vingegaard, winner of the team time trial with his Visma-Lease a bike team the day before, remains six seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar and fifteen over Remco Evenepoel.
Isaac Del Toro is fourth, sixteen seconds behind, while Paul Seixas, who had to deal with a puncture and a bike change in the last forty kilometers, is sixth, 42 seconds behind the yellow jersey.
Doubt hangs over the good performance of the third stage on Monday in the Pyrénées-Orientales where a major fire is in progress. The prefecture said it would make an announcement by the end of the day. The fire is located some 70 kilometers from Les Angles, where the arrival is planned around 5 p.m. for this stage which must leave Granollers, in Spain, at midday.
With AFP
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