'It's an enormous privilege': Issac Del Toro wins Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes after dominating final stage

Isaac Del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG claimed his second successive summit finish victory to top the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes GC, overturning Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's Luke Tuckwell's narrow advantage on the final day.

Del Toro won the seventh stage to Grand Colombier and repeated his success on the HC climb to Plateau de Solaison, attacking just a few kilometres into the 11.5km climb which was the fourth and final categorised ascent of the day.

No one was able to respond to 22-year-old Del Toro's attack and his nearest challenger, Lidl-Trek's Juan Ayuso, finished exactly a minute in arrears.

Tuckwell, who took yellow on stage six after placing third from the breakaway, finished eighth at Plateau de Solaison. It wasn't enough to keep hold of yellow, but he did secure a highly commendable and unexpected second place overall. Ayuso rounded out the podium.

Paul Seixas, the pre-race favourite, abandoned after the day's first climb. He crashed hard on stage seven and had a number of cuts and bruises on his arms, hands and legs.

How it happened

The fight for the breakaway broke out as soon as the final and decisive stage got underway in Beaufort, with the Col du Pré beginning immediately. Netcompany-Ineos, who have had a difficult race with the abandonment of Oscar Onley and sub-par performance of Carlos Rodríguez, were represented by three riders: Rodríguez, Kévin Vauquelin and Laurens De Plus.

Léo Bisuaix of Decathlon CMA CGM was also present, as were Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal - Quick-Step), Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) and Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ).

Because Bisuaix was only 4:40 adrift of the yellow jersey, and Vauquelin just over a further minute behind, the breakaway was never permitted an advantage of more than three minutes. At various points the group fractured over the following two categorised claims, but it kept coming back together.

The big news of the first hour of riding, though, was the withdrawal of Seixas after the descent of the first climb. The French teenager crashed on stage seven but despite finishing and signing on for the final day’s racing, the 19-year-old quit after just 30km of racing.

It meant that fellow youngster Tuckwell of Red Bull had one less rider to worry about as he attempted to hold onto yellow. Yet the Aussie knew he would still come under serious pressure from Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Ayuso and Del Toro.

Despite some pre-stage predictions of carnage from the get-go, the GC cohort decided against launching attacks early on and instead waited for the final climb of Plateau de Solaison which averages a punishing gradient of 8.9% for 11.5km. The ascent will make its Tour de France debut this July.

At the bottom of the climb, the eight escapees had a lead of 42 seconds, and it didn’t take long for drama to ignite from behind.

Within a kilometre Tuckwell had lost contact with the front of the favourites group, and he stuck obdurately to the wheel of his teammate Maxim Van Gils as he fought to maintain the race lead, and failing that to not fall of the podium.

UAE’s young Spaniard, Pablo Torres, was setting a brutal pace at the front of the group when Del Toro launched a seated attack out of Torres’s wheel with 8.8km to go. No one could respond. No one would see Del Toro again until the very top of the climb.

Within a kilometre Del Toro had a lead of 18 seconds over Ayuso, Jorgenson and Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), and after two kilometres that advantage had doubled. It was Tadej Pogačar-esque.

With 5.3km remaining, Ayuso distanced his teammate Skjelmose and Jorgenson and for a brief while he appeared to be reducing Del Toro’s advantage. But Del Toro only pulled away again, finishing the queen stage exactly a minute ahead of Ayuso.

Jorgenson slipped further back, finishing in the same group as Tuckwell who looked overjoyed to have secured second place overall. Prior to the race, the young Australian was a virtually unknown figure, despite finishing sixth at last month’s Tour de Romandie. Now he has truly burst onto the scene.

But the headlines belong to Del Toro who will be a deluxe domestique for Pogačar in the mountains at the Tour, and will also be a podium contender himself.

Results:Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, stage 8: Beaufort > Plateau de Solaison (120km)

1. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 3:35.07
2. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, at 1:00
3. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, at 1:02
4. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, at 1:31
5. Cristián Rodríguez (Esp) XDS-Astana, at same time
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Netcompany-Ineos, at 1:36
7. Maxim Van Girls (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, at 1:43
8. Luke Tuckwell (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe
9. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Movistar
10. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, all at same time.

Final general classification

1. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 29:35.05
2. Luke Tuckwell (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, at 54s
3. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, at 1:17
4. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, at 1:36
5. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, at 1:46
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, at 2:41
7. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Movistar, at 3:11
8. Cristián Rodríguez (Esp) XDS-Astana, at 3:15
9. José Félix Parra (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, at 6:25
10. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, at 7:21

A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and long reads across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013. In 2024 he released a seven-part podcast documentary, Ghost in the Machine, about motor doping in cycling.

Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains. He lives in Valencia, Spain.