Take a bow, Isaac del Toro. After suffering on stage 16, the 21-year-old Mexican hit back with his first stage victory in the maglia rosa on stage 17 to show his rivals that he is not going to give up the fight for overall victory in the 2025 Corsa Rosa.
The Giro d'Italia seemed to have turned once again on the steep Santa Barbara and San Valentino climbs on Tuesday, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Eastpost) and Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the ascendency. Del Toro showed his talent by responding just 24 hours later.
"We're all human and a bad day is normal. I need to accept it, not complain and not spend a lot of time thinking about it. Last night was actually my best sleep at the Giro," Del Toro said.
"Everybody has bad days, it's normal in cycling. I just need to learn fast from them and stay strong mentally. If I showed anything today, it was to myself, that I always need to keep going and never give up.
"My chances of winning the Giro are the same as when I started in Albania. I want to finish this off, especially for the guys in the team. They're always there for me."
UAE lost Jay Vine but played a good tactical strategy by placing Brandon McNulty in the breakaway and by having the numbers to control the pace on the Mortirolo and in the valley to Bormio.
Then Del Toro did his thing yet again. He distanced some of his GC rivals on the late Le Motte climb with Carapaz and then attacked him and breakaway survivor Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) to win the stage. Bardet was hoping to win a final stage in his final Grand Tour but there were no gifts from Del Toro.
"I tried not to make mistakes, then late on, Rafal Majka came to me and said 'We go for the stage win'. I said 'OK, no stress.' I didn't have anything to lose, so it was nice to try for it.
"Everyone was suffering and thinking of the sprint, so I went for it. I'm happy to have the legs.
"I knew the finish was technical but I didn't take any risks. I hate crashing, I only take risks when there's something to win."
Del Toro's victory celebrations were not to recall Tadej Pogačar's victory in the 2024 Giro but for the tifosi. He made a similar gesture when he won Milano-Torino in the spring but that was because his jersey zip was broken.
"It was a way to say thank you to the fans for all their support. I don't know why but they always cheer for me, that's a special feeling. My victory salute was my thank you."
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