Updated July 8, 2026 01:58AM
Tour de France Rivals See Pogacar's Gift to Del Toro as a Smart Move in More Ways Than One
Could Tadej Pogačar's gesture to teammate Isaac del Toro be seen as a sign of disrespect to the peloton? Tour de France rivals explain why they saw it differently.
Del Toro and Pogačar celebrate their emotional win Sunday. (Photo: Gruber Images)
Did Tadej Pogačar disrepect the Tour de France peloton when he eased up Sunday and let Isaac del Toro win in Barcelona? Some old-school observers wondered if he had.
His direct rivals didn’t see it that way.
One day after Pogačar passed on a stage victory, time bonuses and perhaps the yellow jersey to give Del Toro his first Tour stage, riders insisted the gesture wasn’t viewed as anything else than a smart play.
Speaking to Velo, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike said he absolutely undestands the logic behind Pogačar’s generosity.
“Pogačar has won I don’t know how many Tour stages and it’s not going to change his life to win another stage,” Kuss told Velo. “It brings the whole team up so much more to have your strong teammate win.”
Kuss understands how teams that share the spoils can lift everyone inside the bus.
He won the 2023 Vuelta a España after Visma rallied around him and he’s completed the grand tour stage sweep while working for GC captains.
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“Del Toro deserved the win with the finish he did,” Kuss said. “In the big picture, it’s way more significant than Pogačar winning another stage.”
Cycling’s unwritten rules are changing
Cycling has long embraced a “no gifts” culture.
If you have the legs to win, you’re expected to win, or at least that’s what tradition demands.
Easing up before the line or appearing to hand someone a victory, even if it’s a teammate, can be taken as an insult rather than an act of sportsmanship.
Perhaps the sport’s most famous example came on Mont Ventoux in 2000, when Lance Armstrong eased up to let Marco Pantani win. Pantani later bristled at the suggestion that he was given a gift from his bitter rival rather than earning the victory outright.
Of course, the circumstances matter a lot.
Del Toro was a UAE teammate and his victory Sunday wasn’t a pure gift anyway. The 22-year-old attacked first, opened a gap, and the others couldn’t bring him back.
Pogačar simply chose not to snatch the stage away in the final meters.
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Still, a few watching from the sidelines grumbled that the gesture might have been a touch too much.
No one in the peloton saw it as controversial.
“No, not at all,” Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon-CMA CGM) said when asked if the move could be seen as an insult. “It’s what they want to do, and Del Toro was the strongest anyway. There was no other rival who was going to beat him.”
Like Kuss, the Belgian veteran saw nothing but upside for Pogačar allowing his teammates get an early taste of success.
“I think it’s really smart for [Pogačar] to let his teammate win. It’s the smartest thing he can do, because Del Toro is probably the second strongest rider in the Tour,” Benoot said Monday. “So to do it that way lifts the entire team.”
‘One of highlights of my career’
Pogačar isn’t one of those old-school team captains who insist on winning everything.
The four-time Tour winner has always been generous with his teammates.
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Last year, Brandon McNulty won the GP Montréal after he and Pogačar arrived together to the line, with the Slovenian letting his American teammate take the biggest one-day win of his career.
Pogačar celebrated Del Toro’s as one of his own.
“I think yesterday was one of the highlights of my career,” Pogačar said. “He’s a teammate and now I consider him a friend.”
Perhaps the biggest message Sunday is that Pogačar is so confident that he can pass on a stage victory because there are plenty more to come.
In fact, Kuss said Visma-Lease a Bike is already bracing for the 1-2 punch expected to come later in this Tour between Pogačar and Del Toro.
“Pogačar is the big favorite but Del Toro looks super strong and he has a lot of qualities that make him a guy that you have to follow,” Kuss told Velo. “It puts them in a strong position, but we can be confident in the team to take care of it.”
Pogačar wasted little time reminding everyone who’s the Tour boss, winning Monday’s summit finish to surge back into yellow.
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