Isaac del Toro took a giant step for his own career and for Mexican cycling in general when he captured his country's first ever Giro d'Italia maglia rosa in Siena on Sunday.
However, apart from the celebrations, the 21-year-old also spent much of his first ever Giro leader's press conference fielding questions about who of his UAE Team Emirates XRG squad was now the main overall contender.
Del Toro's rise to the top of professional cycling has certainly been a remarkable one. The former Tour de l'Avenir winner clinched a stage victory in his first pro race at the Tour Down Under last year, and now he has taken the Giro d'Italia lead in his first ever participation in the Italian race.
Second overall before stage 9 after a powerful ride on the Tagliacozzo summit finish, the UAE rider continued to show his ambition by blasting away some 50 kilometres from the line in Siena on Sunday, taking Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) with him, as well as eventual stage winner Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Del Toro could not claim the stage win as he was outwitted by the much more experienced Van Aert on the steep ascent into Siena, but nonetheless he managed to gain over a minute on all the group of main favourites.
This included teammate and stage 7 winner Juan Ayuso, delayed by a crash just before Del Toro attacked and where arch-rival Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) had fallen. Ayuso then lost more time on the ascent into Siena as Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) launched a move and the Spaniard struggled slightly.
While gaining time on Roglič was a big plus for Ayuso, he also shed 1:07 to his teammate by the finish and is now 1:13 behind in second place in the Giro d'Italia GC standings. But Del Toro was at pains to emphasise that both the Spaniard and Adam Yates remained UAE's main contenders for the Giro.
"I don't think so," he answered directly when asked if he was now going to enjoy leadership status in the team given he was the wearer of the maglia rosa.
"I have more confidence in team and in Adam and Juan. They [already] showed they are ready to do a big job in three weeks races."
"For sure I'm in a good position, but I don't think I am the leader, no."
Del Toro's battling for the stage win, even though Ayuso was in the chase group created a strange situation where UAE were working for the Spaniard to try and distance Roglič as much as possible, even while the Mexican was trying to keep his options open in the break. But Del Toro said that he had received instructions over the race radio not to collaborate given until Del Toro and Van Aert went clear in the closing kilometres the break also contained a dangerous GC rival, 2021 Giro winner Bernal.
"I told them in the break I couldn't push because my leader was behind," Del Toro explained, "but over the radio they told me to wait and stay up there. My other teammates helped Ayuso to come back."
"Van Aert asked me to pull, for sure, but in the end I obviously understood the situation because he had Simon [Yates, Visma-Lease a Bike GC contender] in the group behind. I had everything to go for with the overall lead, and he had everything to go for with the stage win."
"For sure we both tried our best and I don't have any regrets. I tried to go full gas on the last climb [to Siena] but I was not able to do it."
A voyage in the dark
It remains to be seen whether Del Toro can defend the maglia rosa. As he pointed out post-stage, that quite apart from leading a Grand Tour being a completely new experience, as a second-year- pro, he also was testing his own capabilities in radically new terrain in other ways, too.
"I don't know what I can do in the [stage 10 Tuesday] time trial," Del Toro said. "Obviously you hope to be ready for it, but it's the longest time trial I'll have ever done so let's see."
He was equally ambivalent about his chances in the high mountains of the third week, should he make it that far in the lead.
"I don't think you cannot ever be confident in cycling," he remarked, "because so many things can happen in this sport that the word confident is dangerous. So for sure I'm not confident about it, but I want to believe I'm able to do my job and I want to believe in me.
"Of course if I can do it I will try to do it, and we will see in the third week."
In the short-term, his delight at wearing the leader's jersey was palpable, given that regardless of what happens, Del Toro has now made history for Mexican cycling. At 21, that's a remarkable achievement.
"It's unbelievable for me, it's so difficult to describe my feelings," he said. When racing as a child back home in Mexico, he said, "Everybody wants to wear this jersey, I wanted to do it, so now, to actually have the jersey - it's insane. I just can't describe this feeling I have."
Yet for all his delight, the question of the UAE Team Emirates leadership after his capturing the pink jersey continued to rumble through his press conference, with Del Toro insisting that "for me, in my head, they are the leaders."
"I have a lot of respect for them, this is the race situation and let's see if I can do something crazy again. But for sure, they have shown before they can do it" - lead in Grand Tours - "and for me it's the first experience. So let's see if I have the legs and of course, if I have them, I will try."
For all his visible enjoyment at wearing pink, then, Del Toro said that if the circumstances demanded in the mountains, he'd be happy to work for either Yates or Ayuso even whilst he was leading the race.
"We will see how the race is going, but for sure if they have super legs again like they have shown in other races, I will do it," he said. "There's no problem or stress."
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