News
Isaac del Toro shakes up the Tour with a victory at Montjuïc
Isaac del Toro turned Montjuïc into the Tour de France’s main stage with a victory that shook up the race and filled Barcelona with cycling atmosphere. The Mexican won the second stage, finishing on the Olympic mountain, on a day marked by heat, steep climbs and thousands of fans following the peloton.
The 168.5-kilometre stage between Tarragona and Barcelona once again put the city at the centre of world cycling. After a crowded start in Tarragona, the Tour entered Barcelona with the tension typical of big days: streets full of people, road closures, onlookers leaning out over the pavements and Montjuïc turned into a natural grandstand.
The finish had every ingredient needed to remain in the memory. Del Toro attacked in the final kilometres alongside Tadej Pogacar, his team-mate at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and crossed the line first after a finish full of symbolism. Pogacar did not contest the victory with him and let him savour an enormous triumph on his Tour debut.
The image was powerful: a young Mexican winning in Barcelona, on a climb historic for the sport and with some of the great favourites immediately behind. Pogacar finished second, Remco Evenepoel was third and Jonas Vingegaard, fourth, retained the yellow jersey despite UAE's show of authority.
Montjuïc once again demonstrated why it works so well as a cycling venue. Its bends, its gradients and its connection with Olympic Barcelona gave the stage a highly televisual but also highly urban finale. For those there, it was not just a finish: it was an afternoon of heat, waiting, noise and excitement close to the street.
Del Toro's victory also had an international reading. Mexico celebrated a Tour stage victory again decades later, and Barcelona was the place chosen by the race for an image that is already part of this edition: the peloton entering the city and the Montjuïc mountain deciding the day.
In daily life, the Tour left Barcelona disrupted for hours, with mobility affected and many areas taken over by fans. But it also left an unusual scene: residents, tourists and cycling lovers sharing space in a city that, for one day, looked towards Montjuïc as if something more than a stage were being decided there.