On another hot day in Catalunya, the Tour de France peloton pursued a small breakaway of three riders until the finishing circuits in Barcelona, where UAE Team Emirates-XRG took control, with Brandon McNulty putting the bunch under the pressure for over 20 km. Everyone seemed to be waiting for Tadej Pogačar to make the first move on the Montjuïc climb, but after an attack from Tobias Halland Johannessen over the crest, the favourites were all together in the final kilometre, where Isaac Del Toro proved the chosen one in the final few hundred metres.
The young Mexican, a Tour de France debutant, was apparently working for Pogačar, as demonstrated in his work earlier in the finale, not least in leading the chase after a fast-descending Mattias Skjelmose in the last 2 km. As the speeding group entered the last few hundred metres, Del Toro appeared to begin a leadout for Pogačar, but the Slovenian was preoccupied with looking over his shoulder at his rivals, including Jonas Vingegaard who was struggling to find the legs to sprint.
Del Toro then almost crashed into the barriers as he too looked behind to see a gap, then he pushed on to the line, where he was joined by Pogačar for a team celebration.
"It means…really everything. I said before I’m a very privileged guy," Del Toro said at the finish, looking a little stunned. "We were going super fast. We predicted that this would happen in the top of the climb – I was not able to be in the top position – but then I was able to pass and to bring back Skjelmose. We made a plan for Tadej, and I did it, but then the gap was bigger, so I just went with the flow to the finish line.”
Remco Evenepoel finished third, grabbing the last bonus seconds just ahead of race leader Jonas Vingegaard, who was the last to finish on the same time as Del Toro. Fifth-place Skjelmose led the next nine-rider group home three seconds later. Vingegaard's lead over Pogačar has been halved to six seconds, but he remains in the yellow jersey for another day. Del Toro, meanwhile, moves up to fourth, which puts him into the white jersey ahead of Juan Ayuso.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89777 count=10 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89777 count=10 gc=10 year=2026]
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