For sports fans, there are certain days on the calendar where everything seems to just align. The Christmas Day extravaganza of NFL and NBA games, for instance. Or "Motorsports Christmas," the triple-header in May where the F1 Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 all fall on the same day.
So it is for July 5 and Mexican sports fans, who started their day off with the first Mexican stage win in the Tour de France in 36 years and hope to finish it off this evening with a home country win over England at Mexico City's fabled Azteca stadium in the last domestic match played at the 2026 World Cup.
In what may be a harbinger for England, the scene at the Tour was ebullient. "Pogi, hermano, Tadej es Mexicano" went the rhyming chant from fans outside the UAE Team Emirates-XRG bus after Isaac del Toro, the phenomenal young stage racer and teammate of Tadej Pogačar, chased down late attacker Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and burst up the final climb with such fury that he and team leader Tadej Pogačar could briefly sit up to celebrate the moment. Pogačar's hand subtly but unmistakably nudged Del Toro forward so he crossed the line first, leading to the Slovenian's honorary joint citizenship moment.
"It's super special, especially because [the fans] make me feel like [I'm] in a home race," Del Toro said at the finish of becoming Mexico's second-ever Tour stage winner and its first since Raúl Alcalá in 1990. As the only Mexican rider in the WorldTour level, Del Toro is keenly aware of the profile he cuts for his compatriots back home and on the roadside.
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