On the same day Mexico’s World Cup run ended in a 3-2 loss to England, 22-year-old Isaac del Toro delivered his home country a different kind of historic result: victory on Stage 2 of the Tour de France atop Barcelona’s Montjuïc, becoming just the second Mexican ever to win a Tour stage, after Raúl Alcalá in 1989 and 1990. Del Toro battled back from a flat tire and a botched bike change to seize the win with an assist from teammate Tadej Pogačar. Small consolation for football-mad Mexico, perhaps — but a genuinely historic moment for the country’s cycling fans nonetheless.
TOP STORY
- Cheer Up Mexico — You Got a Historic Win This Week
RACE NEWS
- Chris Froome Retires, Leaving a Complicated Legacy
- The Tour’s “Commitments”
- The Next Grand Départ is Just a Year Away
- Announcing…The First-Ever EuroTrash HeroSash!
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- L’Étape du Tour Goes Big at Alpe d’Huez — Again
- EF Releases Ben Healy Feature The Individualist
- Castelli Partnership Produces Latest Airbag System
- Urška’s Sneaky-Confident Post Before Tadej’s Tour
VIDEO
- PEZ’ Conversation with Phil Liggett — from 1990!
Cheer Up Mexico — You Got a Historic Win This Week
Driving through California’s Central Valley Sunday evening, I listened to the Mexico-England World Cup match. As time dwindled and Mexico scored to pull within one — up a man, with plenty of time remaining — I mapped to a sports bar. There I found an all-Mexico crowd.
When the referee called time with England up 3-2, the collective mood plummeted, and I wondered: How many people here know about Isaac del Toro’s win at the Tour today.
My guess is very few: This is the U.S., where cycling fandom remains niche; ask a person on the street in virtually any American town to name a cyclist, and 90% of the time (in my estimation) they’ll name…Lance Armstrong.
Alas: fans of Mexican sports had something historic to celebrate in del Toro’s Stage 2 victory. The 22 year-old is just the second Mexican ever to win a Tour de France stage, after Raúl Alcalá (stages in 1989 and 1990). Moreover, the stage win was a spectacular one, earned atop Barcelona’s Montjuic — and an inspiring one, as del Toro had to chase back on to the surging peloton after a flat tire (and a botched bike change, thanks to the team car having passed by as he stood at the side of the road).
Puncture, chase, attack, and beat out the world’s best cyclists for your nation’s first Tour stage win in 36 years. As heartening as evening the score in the match’s final moments would have been?
As far as this sports fan is concerned…certainly.
The win is, of course, small consolation to a football-mad nation: Imagine if, somehow, both the French national team and Paul Seixas were to win their respective summertime global Super Bowls. The roar of the fans of Les Bleus would drown out those who have longed for a home-country Tour champion since 1985.
Even del Toro himself is likely feeling some ambivalence: After his win, he urged El Tri to take the fight to England, noting “we have these 11 guys ripping it up in the soccer.”
But viewing him after the stage, overcome, and being congratulated by his teammates and his rivals, I bet he’s feeling pretty good this evening, notwithstanding Mexico’s loss to England.
I say his compatriots — and all sports fans — should be feeling the same way.
And to the suggestion that del Toro’s teammate Pogačar “gifted” him the victory, I say…A win’s a win.
For PEZ’ in-depth coverage of the Tour de France, check out the following:
- Stage 1: Vingegaard Takes Yellow as Visma Wins TTT
- Stage 2: Del Toro Earns First Tour Stage Win on Stellar Day for UAE
- Pez Stage-by-Stage Guide to Week 1
RACE NEWS
The Tour’s “Commitments”
On behalf of ASO, the company that organizes the Tour de France (and other races), I’m passing along the Tour’s “commitments.” Recognizing that every corporation has an incentive to paint itself in the most flattering colors possible, I’d rather see ASO make these commitments than not!
For a complete view of those commitments, please check out https://www.letour.fr.
The Next Grand Départ is Just a Year Away
Stages 1 and 2 were so much fun that we already can’t wait for the 2027 Tour de France!
Especially because it should be much cooler, as the Tour launches from Edinburgh — the first time in 120 years that the Grand Boucle has departed from Scottish soil.
Announcing…The First-Ever EuroTrash HeroSash!
Watching the Stage 1 team time trial, I was reminded vividly: While some cycling fans love to say that cycling is a team sport, it simply isn’t: It’s an individual sport whose individuals are on — and occasionally rely on — their teams.
Witness our constant focus on a few GC contenders. Six, maybe eight spotlights are reserved for luminaries (though Peacock reserves just two spotlights, celebrating Pogačar, Vingegaard, and almost no one else).
Here at Pez we’ve thus decided to celebrate behind-the-scenes riders who muster moments that are worth calling out: Bunny-hopping a crash. Lending a hand to a teammate — or even a rival. Or just turning themselves inside-out for someone else’s result.
Pez’ new award: The EuroTrash HeroSash. We’ll drape it over one rider’s shoulders twice a week — in every EuroTrash from now until the end of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. (Yes, the women receive this award as well!)
Our premier HeroSash goes to…Lidl-Trek’s Mathias Vacek. He’s been on a tear this season, and he went on a tear in the kilometer leading into Stage 1’s final climb, putting teammate Juan Ayuso in position to earn fourth position in the General Classification.
Mathias, for your efforts, Pez awards you the first-ever EuroTrash HeroSash!
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
Chris Froome Retires, Leaving a Complicated Legacy
What? The lead story in the first EuroTrash after the Tour de France started isn’t about stages one and two, but about a rider who last won a Grand Tour eight years ago — and whom we’ve barely heard from in several seasons?
Then again, the fact that leading with Chris Froome is questionable tells us something about his legacy; after all, he owned the Tour de France in the mid-teens, and, with four wins, trails only the Big Four: Anquetil, Hinault, Indurain, and Merckx. Froome’s legacy is a complicated one.
That term — “complicated” — isn’t to suggest controversy; Froome-in-review isn’t complicated like, say, Lance Armstrong. But had Chris Froome retired after the crash that ended his campaign to win a fifth Tour de France, his story would be far simpler.
During his 2013-2017 reign, Froome failed to win the Tour only when he abandoned in 2014, after multiple crashes. He also twice won the Vuelta, and in 2018 emerged on the top step of the Giro podium after recovering, stage by stage, from two crashes, finally overtaking Tom Dumoulin on Stage 19. It remains one of cycling history’s most remarkable victories.
A terrible crash during the 2019 Dauphiné effectively ended his career — which isn’t to say that Froome retired after fracturing his femur, elbow and ribs. He returned to racing, and from 2020, he was…around. Lurking, usually in the bottom third of the standings. He moved from Ineos to Israel-Premier tech, surely making far more money per UCI point than any rider in the WorldTour (and maybe in history).
Watching Chris Froome riding a bike was an act of self-flagellation; he was the opposite of fluid, the antithesis of the kind of grace in motion that we fans love to observe in our champions. But he was gutsy: witness his turning himself inside-out to stay on Sagan’s wheel in an epic stage 11 of the 2016 Tour. And he was strategic: After recognizing that descending was a severely limiting weakness, he trained on downhills, and the next thing we knew he was widening leads on twisty descents. Sure, in the “supertuck” he looked like Kermit the Frog pedaling a too-small bicycle, but…it worked.
And of course he was resourceful, actually running a brief stretch of the Mt. Ventoux stage later in the 2016 Tour. Whatever it took to win.
I don’t miss watching Chris Froome ride a bike, but I do appreciate what he brought to cycling. I’m confident that over time, that legacy will become less complicated, and simply appreciated for his guts, his strength, and his resilience.
Chris Froome’s Palmarès, courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
-
4x
-
2x
-
3x
-
7x
-
2x
-
5x
-
2x
-
6x
-
2x
-
2x 2nd
L’Étape du Tour Goes Big at Alpe d’Huez — Again
The 34th edition of L’Étape du Tour de France rolls out Sunday, July 19, sending 16,000 amateurs over the exact same 170km route the pros will tackle six days later in Stage 20, Bourg d’Oisans to Alpe d’Huez, minus none of the suffering. Riders face over 65km of climbing and 5,400m of elevation gain across the Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Télégraphe, and Col du Galibier, all Hors Catégorie or Category 1, before finishing via the Col de Sarenne. Notably, the famous 21 hairpins won’t be part of this particular arrival.
The field spans 79 nationalities, with 29% of entrants coming from outside France, all chasing the ghosts of last year’s winners Victor Vidal and Stéphanie Meider.
The celebrity/crossover-athlete contingent is strong this year. Ultra-trail runner Mathieu Blanchard (a “Koh Lanta” alum turned Diagonale des Fous champion) makes his Étape debut, as does cross-country skier Mathis Desloges, fresh off three silver medals at Milan Cortina. Ophélie David, a former Ski Cross World Champion and X Games multi-champion who lives in Alpe d’Huez, admits she’s never actually ridden the Croix de Fer, and says the 5,000+ meters of climbing “genuinely scares” her. Her goal: just beat the time cut.
Hutchinson returns as official supplier for a ninth straight year, backing its “She Rides” program, 15 women riders who’ve received coaching support throughout the season, aimed at getting more women into the sport and onto starting lines like this one.
EF Releases Ben Healy Feature The Individualist
EF Pro Cycling is known for its old-school, put-a-guy-in-the-break style of racing, for surprise runs in yellow and pink — and for producing some very engaging video content.
Many of those videos feature racers and former racers away from racing — Lachlan Morton is their recurring star — but EF recently released a deep-dive into Ben Healy’s Tour preparation that I found pretty compelling. Check it out here after watching today’s stage!
Castelli Partnership Produces Latest Airbag System
On the eve of the Tour de France, Castelli, Soudal Quick-Step and AG Insurance Soudal have teamed up with Italian start-up RAGAZ to develop an integrated airbag system built to protect a rider’s spine in a crash. Castelli has engineered the prototype to disappear into race-ready apparel, preserving the fit, freedom of movement and aero profile pros demand.
The project builds on Castelli’s earlier safety pushes—hi-vis training gear, abrasion-resistant fabrics—and zeroes in on spinal injuries that have plagued the peloton in recent years. The design brief was simple: make it light enough and unobtrusive enough that riders actually wear it, from WorldTour pros to weekend warriors. The numbers back that up—the system weighs about as much as two energy gels, inflates in 200 milliseconds, and deflates automatically if triggered by accident so a false alarm won’t leave you stuck. It’s also rechargeable and removable for washing.
Announcing the partnership at Soudal Quick-Step’s pre-Tour press conference in Barcelona, Castelli’s Global Brand Manager Steve Smith called it the next step after visibility and abrasion work, aiming for protection that’s practical enough for everyday riding. Soudal Quick-Step CEO Jurgen Foré said it’s the first system sized right for pro racing—covering a critical area without getting in the way of elite performance—and confirmed the team will wear it in training and competition. RAGAZ founder Francesco Ragazzini said pairing his tech with Castelli and Soudal Quick-Step’s expertise marks a major step toward a solution years in the making.
For now, the focus is technical evaluation and rapid prototyping, with an eye toward making the sport safer at every level.
Urška’s Sneaky-Confident Post Before Tadej’s Tour
I spotted this and thought it was worth passing along, because it tells us something about how Tadej Pogačar is approaching this Tour de France.
His partner Urška Žigart posted a kind of good-luck photo collage to Instagram: well-wishes, kind thoughts, a la “…make some nice memories with the boys and most importantly stay safe.” Plus a sweet sentiment in Slovenian, that evidently means “”When you are far from me, I am also far from myself.”
Then several photos of Tadej — he’s just like us! Eating ice cream, falling asleep while reading, going for a swim, even hiking. But buried among those photos is this gem:
Oh, not much going on here, just Tadej sorting through a pile of what must be 30 Maillots Jaunes.
Something tells me Tadej knew she was posting this on the eve of the Tour de France, and that he was just fine sending his rivals a message.
PEZ VIDEO
As we follow not just the 113th Tour de France, but icon Phil Liggett’s final Grand Boucle as well, let’s relive Richard’s 1990 conversation with the man himself.
Gotta Comment, thought or suggestion? Drop us a line at Content@PezCyclingNews.com
The post EUROTRASH: Mexico Gets One Historic Win appeared first on PezCycling News.
