‘I Don’t Have Trauma’: Del Toro Ready to Play His Part in UAE’s Audacious New Goal

The UAE Emirates-XRG squad of Tadej Pogačar and Isaac Del Toro may have missed out on bettering its staggering 2025 win total this year, clocking up 78 wins versus the 97 of 12 months earlier, but it’s got a huge goal for next season.

Namely, winning all three Grand Tours.

That target was announced earlier this week and it’s a brave one. Visma-Lease a Bike is the only team to ever achieve it, doing so in 2023. Primož Roglič took the Giro that year, while Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour and Sepp Kuss was best at the Vuelta.

Until then the treble had never been done.

One of UAE’s top leaders Del Toro has confirmed he is on for the challenge, agreeing to target the Giro d’Italia if that is what is needed. That’s despite a very tough experience the last time around.

“Depending on what the overall plan of the team is, we will try to follow it,” he said, asked if he saw himself leading the squad in the Giro.

“All teams want to win the Big Three in the same year, so it’s nothing new. We will see what role I have in 2027 and we will try to do our best.”

Del Toro was speaking to the media—including Marca—prior to Sunday’s Singapore Criterium.

He is just 22 and is yet to win a Grand Tour. He went agonizingly close in last year’s Giro, leading from stage 9 onwards, winning stage 17 and holding a 43 second gap over Richard Carapaz heading into the final mountain stage.

However a complete and somewhat farcical breakdown of tactics saw himself and Carapaz completely tangled up in marking each other, enabling Simon Yates to leap clear on the Colle delle Finestre. He gained more than five minutes and won the Giro by almost four.

Finishing second was a big blow to Del Toro after going so close, but he says he is over it and learned a lot.

“I don’t have trauma or nor do I need anyone to tell me what I went through, but part of what happened that day shaped me as a person, whether it’s good or bad,” he said.

“It forced me to bring out a bit more of a raw character that I always had inside. Many may think there was a loss, but I feel like I gained so much in those 21 days.”

Pogačar’s praise is ‘flattering, but also intense’

Since that Giro meltdown he’s ridden the Tour for the first time, winning stage 2 and taking third overall.

He’s a year and a half older, has more experience and insists he’s over that Giro experience.

“I feel at peace. Wearing the pink is something that builds character and helps you enjoy things,” he said. “After what I went through that month, everything else is easier.”

That’s important, as he might well find himself as the team’s big leader in the first part of that Grand Tour triple plan.

Hyped for years as the successor to Tadej Pogačar, Del Toro hasn’t quite lived up to that billing. Pogačar won his first Grand Tour—the Tour—at 21. Del Toro is still trying.

He’s undoubtedly a very talented rider, and has huge promise, but the comparisons may have been unhelpful.

Still, Pogačar himself has been one of those building him up. Del Toro was asked if that gave him motivation or pressure.

“It’s not easy,” he answered. “You try to give your best version and be careful, but we don’t know how others see us from the outside.

“That he can see something that maybe I am not noticing is flattering, but also intense.”

Still, even if it does bring him extra attention, there are benefits. He gets to learn from the most dominant rider since Eddy Merckx, and had Pogačar ride for him at points during the Tour de France.

That’s a real show of faith.

“He wants to be part of my process and supports me at every opportunity. It’s a really nice feeling and I feel very privileged,” Del Toro said.

First Mexican to win the Tour?

If the team does indeed put everything into the triple Grand Tour campaign next year, much will hinge on Pogačar. Del Toro will try to win the Giro, potentially needing to beat riders such as Paul Seixas and Jonas Vingegaard to do so.

His Slovenian team leader has already indicated that the Tour de France/Vuelta a España double could be one of his top aims for next season.

He’s in line to take a record sixth Tour de France win, and would likely aim for one or two more after that.

Del Toro, though, is the team’s long-term project for Tour success.

If he does succeed, he would become the first Mexican to ever triumph in the race. Does he see that as possible?

“Why not? If others have won it, why not a Mexican?,” he answered.

“We have two legs, two arms, one head… I don’t see it as far-fetched or impossible. It’s difficult, but I see exactly the same chances as everyone else.

“I won my first stage in Barcelona, made the podium in the Giro and I know I can be competitive. More athletes are coming through the years; I’m not just talking about me, but as Mexicans, of course it’s possible.”

The first step along the way is to win a three week race. Next year’s Giro will be a big opportunity to do that, and to banish any last bad memories from his previous experience there.