Isaac del Toro places second in first Deutschland Tour road stage

In the first road stage of this year’s Lidl Deutschland Tour, prologue winner Isaac del Toro rode to second place for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. The result sees Del Toro cede the leader’s jersey to the day’s winner, Louis Barré (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Nonetheless, Del Toro’s performance can be counted as another positive for the Emirati squad, with the Mexican displaying a fine turn of pace at the finish to take second across the line. A few kilometres earlier, Barré had made a smart move alongside Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and held firm in his attack to the finish.

For Del Toro, the sprint was reserved only for second place, with Barré having escaped the clutches of the chasing group. As the race leader, Del Toro took up responsibilities in the chasing pack, and did his best to close the move down, but the French stage winner had timed his attack wisely.

Despite having spent most of the chase in first wheel, Del Toro still packed the fastest kick to the line, out-sprinting his rivals to second place. A runner-up spot in stage 1 leaves the Mexican in second overall ahead of Friday’s stage, well placed just nine seconds down on Barré.

As Sports Director Fabio Baldato noted, Del Toro has shown he has come into the German stage race with fine legs, and more opportunities will certainly appear over the race’s final three stages.

Fabio Baldato (Sports Director): “Today we saw Isaac strong again, and for us this is the really important thing. After the Tour, he has enjoyed some downtime and came into this race with the motivation to race. Yesterday, we saw exactly what he can do, and that gave us the leader’s jersey for today.

“Of course, we hoped to keep the jersey and play our cards for the stage win, but the stage became very selective in the finale. [Louis] Barré made a strong move and in the end, Isaac cannot follow every attack. He used his energy smartly and on the finish straight, we saw he still had his good kick. Second place is what we will take from today, but already we can get excited for the opportunities later this week.”

Lidl Deutschland Tour 2026 stage 1 results:

1. Louis Barré (Visma-Lease a Bike) 5:15:09

2. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +16″

3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) s.t

Lidl Deutschland Tour 2026 general classification after stage 1:

1. Louis Barré (Visma-Lease a Bike) 5:18:18

2. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +9″

3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +18″