photo credits @ UAE Tour
Isaac del Toro gave a stellar performance to secure victory in the penultimate stage of the UAE Tour today, after distancing red jersey holder Antonio Tiberi along the final climb of Jebel Hafeet.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider started stage 6 from Al Ain Museum 21 seconds behind Tiberi in the general classification, but Del Toro made it clear ahead of the stage that he was ready “to fight for the win” and he felt confident going into the crucial battle on Jebel Hafeet.
Tiberi admitted he was “curious to see how UAE wanted to play their cards” in terms of when they would go on the attack. “Del Toro will try some attacks, because, I mean, he has 21 seconds to make up, so he has to do something,” said Tiberi, who took over the red jersey after winning Wednesday’s Stage 3 on Jebel Mobrah.
As it turned out, the attack came with over 3km to go on the 168km stage leaving Tiberi desperately hanging onto the Mexican rider’s wheel with Lucas Plapp (Team Jayco AlUla) also fighting to stay in the hunt.
However, when Del Toro stepped up the pace with 2.5km to go, Tiberi and Plapp were left struggling in his wake with the Italian eventually finishing fourth behind second-placed Plapp, followed by Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) who came home third.
It was another impressive performance from rising star Del Toro who goes into tomorrow’s final sprint stage round the streets of Abu Dhabi 20 seconds ahead of Tiberi, with Plapp third, 1 minute 40 second behind the leader.
During the week, UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s chief operating officer Andrea Agostini said that the 22-year-old is “not the future, he’s the present” calling Del Toro’s talent “something special”.
And that certainly proved to be the case on the UAE Tour as the Giro d’Italia runner-upstepped into the spotlight vacated this year by his teammate and three-time winner Tadej Pogacar with some panache after also claiming victory on Stage 1.
“This is just a mentality game, that you can be confident enough to keep trying and, of course, if one time it doesn’t work, you still need to have it in your head that you’re able to do it,” Del Toro said of the timing of his attacks.
“Today, we were not confident that we will win, but we had the mentality that we would work for it. I needed to keep going until the line. When I saw the gap, I tried to believe and increase the gap as much as I can,” he added.
“Today is one of the top three victories in my career. It’s so special, and when you win with a team like this it’s even more special. Now, it’s time to realize that I’m working for it and I need to believe more in myself day by day.”
Meanwhile, race hopeful Remco Evenepoel had another tough day in the saddle, finishing the stage in 15th place, almost a minute back, leaving him 10th overall at 2min 25sec.
Earlier, a sizable group of nine riders containing Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-CMA CGM) joined in the move by Axel Huens, Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ United), Josh Tarling, Peter Øxenberg (Ineos Grenadiers), Mark Stewart (Modern Adventure), Alessandro Romele (XDS-Astana), Mattia Gaffuri (Picnic-PostNL), and Owain Doull (Visma-Lease a Bike), eventually rode clear of the peloton, later opening up a modest advantage of around two minutes with over 100km still to go
At the start of the final climb, the remaining breakaway was still holding to a lead of 1:25, with Jacobs and Stewart quickly getting dropped during the early kilometers of the ascent.
At the 10km mark, Tarling and Øxenberg made their way to the front, subsequently dropping Huens, Gaffuri and Bissegger. However, it wasn’t long before Øxenberg found himself out front alone before being reined in as well.
From there, Evenepoel made an attempt to ride clear with 6km to go, but his efforts were for not, as the Belgian rider was quickly reeled back in and spit out the back of the chase group with 5km remaining.
With 4km left, Gall decided to attack, taking Harold Tejada (XDS-Astana) with him. In the meantime, Del Toro launched a series of bold moves that brought him and Tiberi to the front of the chase as the rest of the hopefuls dropped back.
The duo soon caught and passed Gall and Tejada, while Plapp came across to make it three. However, the trio didn’t last long, as Del Toro unleashed a fierce acceleration 2.5km from the finish, easily distancing Tiberi who couldn’t match his rival’s pace.
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