Beyond the Giro Bust-Up: Why Isaac del Toro Has It All to Prove in 2026

Is Isaac del Toro a one-season-wonder or a legit wunderkind?

That’s the narrative that shadows the 22-year-old as he barges into 2026 with a new headline status alongside Tadej Pogačar at his UAE super team.

Beginning Monday, Del Toro will be out to show he’s more than a scourge of the lower leagues, Giro d’Italia nearly-man, or Pogi’s bottle boy.

And the UAE Tour couldn’t be much more of a high-profile place to get started.

“I’m really excited to line up for my first UAE Tour. It’s a special race for me, not only because it’s my debut, but because it’s a home race for the team,” Del Toro said this week in a team note.

“You really feel that sense of pride and responsibility,” he said.

With reigning UAE Tour champion Pogačar putting the finishing touches on his form before the classics, Del Toro gets the poisoned chalice of leading UAE Emirates-XRG into its home race.

Pogi or no Pogi, Emirati officials will be watching, expecting nothing less than a “W” from their $60 million mega squad.

“We’ve prepared really well as a group, and we’re ready to give our best and race aggressively at the UAE Tour,” Del Toro said.

“I hope for a good performance but we also have the class and experience of someone like Adam Yates and then Juan Sebastian Molano for the sprints, so we have lots of options.”

The Mercxian Mexican shares team leadership with Adam Yates next week in the Emirates, but the expectation is clear.

He nearly won the Giro d’Italia and tore apart the back-end of the 2025 season. He’s got one of the most expansive contracts in the World Tour with a deal through 2029.

It’s “Torito” who will be expected to deliver the trophy to his paymasters after seven stages of sand and skyscrapers.

Del Toro takes on Evenepoel in high-stakes UAE duel

Del Toro’s wicked 2025 season made him one of the most hotly tipped new talents in pro cycling. Only French darling and fellow Tour de l’Avenir winner Paul Seixas comes close.

That 18-win blitz and a ride on Pogačar’s wheel at road worlds mean Del Toro is the one rider tipped to take down Remco Evenepoel next week in the UAE. The Belgian will land into stage 1 on Monday more bullish than ever after a bombastic start to his new chapter with the Red Bull super team.

With Jonas Vingegaard out of the picture due to sickness and injury, the Emirati Tour is expected to be a two-horse race.

Remco vs. Del Toro. Red Bull vs. UAE.

A time trial and two summit finishes – including an unprecedented ascent of the brutal Jebel Morah – will split the differences.

Rival GC leaders Derek Gee, Felix Gall, Antonio Tiberi, and Michael Storer might be making do with leftovers.

Del Toro needs to win when he can

The expectations on Del Toro are huge as he heads into his third WorldTour season.

His obliteration of the back half of 2025 was Pogi-esque.

He gobbled lower-category classics like tacos and scored more UCI points than everyone but Pogačar and Vingegaard.

He was the second-winningest non-sprinter of pro cycling in just his sophomore season. Only Pogačar and Paul Magnier took more flowers in 2025.

And this year, Juan Ayuso’s ugly divorce from UAE Emirates boosts Del Toro to the second tier of the hierarchy alongside only João Almeida.

Team management expects Del Toro to step up accordingly.

More opportunities, more pressure.

“Isaac exceeded all our expectations [in 2025], even mine. And I’m the most optimistic person when it comes to my riders,” team UAE sport manager Joxean Matxín Fernández told Eurosport Spain during the winter.

“He’s going to take another step forward in 2026. He’s earned our trust and support with his success on the road,” Matxín said. “He’ll have a better calendar in terms of the quality of the field.”

But the team aren’t letting the hype train run off the rails right away.

He is only 22-and-a-bit, after all.

In Pogačar’s shadow at the Tour de France

Rather than send Del Toro to the Giro d’Italia to finish that business from the Finestre, he’s slated for a debut at the Tour de France – albeit one that’s couched fully in the context of Pogačar.

The young apprentice will shadow his master through Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo before he plays student again at the Tour.

For Pogačar, a record-equalling fifth yellow jersey title is at stake. For Del Toro, it’s a primer for when the Slovenian can’t stand the race anymore.

“The idea is that I am always with him, it is part of the job to learn as fast as I can,” Del Toro said of the Tour during the team’s winter media day.

“I try to understand the race better and learn how these races work for the future,” he said. “I think it is good for me.”

Some believe Del Toro has the panache to win the Tour de France on debut. But as far as Matxín and Pogačar are concerned, the young gun is racing to learn, not to win.

Older and wiser?

Del Toro might not taste grand tour leadership in 2026. Almeida has taken both the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España out of his teammate’s hands.

That means stage-racing opportunities like the UAE Tour are all the more important to Del Toro in his quest to show 2025 was just the warm-up.

Because let’s face it – his 2025 palmarès was high on quantity, low on quality [don’t cancel me for saying it].

It’s a monster haul that was built on lower-tier classics and one mountain short of a premier GC win. The Vuelta a Burgos remains his biggest stage-race win to date.

The UAE Tour and planned starts at Itzulia Basque Country and the Dauphiné offer Del Toro the chance for a first WorldTour stage-race win – and a platform to prove he’s older, wiser, and better than before.

“I learned quickly after the Giro, and I just tried to manage it as best as I can,” he said this winter, when that tactical disaster was still a hot topic.

“In the second half of the season, I tried to fix the problems of the Giro and believe more in myself,” Del Toro said. “It was working, so I’ll see if I can do it again.”

More seasoned GC racers like Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, and Ayuso will force the 22-year-old to prove that point in his heavyweight 2026 stage-racing schedule.

Del Toro’s turn to deliver

The UAE Tour ranks stratospherically high in importance for UAE Emirates-XRG. That’s why Pogačar was shipped over there to deliver three wins in five years.

And now Del Toro has earned the unfortunate privilege of shouldering all the trust of his team.

If it works out for him, perfect.

If it doesn’t, it will be another disappointing blip in a 22-year-old’s learning curve.

Del Toro provisional race program for 2026:

UAE Tour
Strade Bianche*
Tirreno Adriatico
Milan San Remo*
Itzulia Basque Country
Critérium du Dauphiné (Tour Auvergne – Rhône Alpes)
Tour de France*

* asterisked races = with Pogačar