Isaac del Toro takes UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s 95th win of the season

Bringing an end to his season in style, Isaac del Toro won the Giro del Veneto on Wednesday afternoon. The Italian one-day race brought Del Toro’s 16th victory of the season, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s 95th.

Continuing his remarkable run of form that has seen him winning at a canter ever since finishing runner-up at the Giro d’Italia in May, Del Toro burst clear of his rivals on the final climb, before descending to victory in Venice. Behind the Mexican, his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Pavel Sivakov made a late attack to secure second place over the line.

In doing so, Sivakov ensured the Emirati squad would end another memorable afternoon in Italy with two riders on the podium. This latest win comes, of course, just days after Tadej Pogačar won Il Lombardia on Saturday, and Adam Yates backed this up with victory at the inaugural edition of Valdengo-Oropa on Sunday.

Coming up trumps in Italy once again, UAE Team Emirates-XRG produced a fine team display on the hills that peer down on Venice, setting both Del Toro and Sivakov up for attacks late on in the day. Del Toro’s winning move came with 2.3km to ride of the final climb, but the seeds for his move were planted earlier in the race.

The day’s breakaway had gone clear in the flatlands that preceded the Torricella Massimiliana climb in the finale. Standing at an average gradient of 5% for 4km, the Torricella Massimiliana would be climbed five times in the final 70km of racing, and it was on these slopes that UAE Team Emirates-XRG began to lay down the pressure.

Coming to the front of the bunch, Del Toro’s teammates were able to set a hard tempo up each ascent, with Florian Vermeersch, Pablo Torres and Tim Wellens combining to ensure that the breakaway was mopped up inside 30km to go. Thanks to Wellens’ final hard push, Sivakov made the race’s first true attack with 26.5km to ride.

From here on out, a selection was made and the starting klaxon had fired for the day’s final showdown.

Once Sivakov’s attack had shaken up the bunch on the penultimate ascent, the Frenchman began to sit on the front of the reduced peloton as they hit the base of the climb for the final time. Making good on the team’s plan to make an attack with Del Toro, the 28-year-old set a ferocious pace and with 2.3km of the climb to go, his younger teammate made his move.

As Del Toro accelerated, Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Grégoire made a valiant effort to keep to his wheel, but the Frenchman was distanced within a couple of hundred metres. With 10.7km remaining of the day, Del Toro pushed on and would not be seen again.

As Del Toro celebrated his 16th win of the season, Sivakov made a smart attack under the flamme rouge as the chasers approached the line. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider got the jump on his opponents and crossed the line in second place.

The result brings Del Toro’s second season as a professional to an end, with the young 21-year-old moving his tally of wins from 3 to a whopping 19 this year. Beginning with Milano-Torino in the spring, Del Toro went on to achieve 9 of his 16 season victories in Italy, including a stage of the Giro d’Italia in May.

Becoming the youngest rider since Fausto Coppi to spend 10 days or more in the maglia rosa, the Mexican enjoyed a history-making Giro, in which he became the first Mexican to ever finish on the podium. Despite ceding the race lead on the penultimate stage, Del Toro used this as fuel for the fire, and went on to enjoy a remarkable season for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

The 21-year-old won three out of five stages en route to winning the Tour of Austria in July, before picking up a string of one-day victories and the general classification at the Vuelta a Burgos later in the campaign.

Reflecting on his season and his latest win on Wednesday afternoon, the Mexican was delighted to bring an end to racing in the best way possible.

Del Toro: “It wasn’t easy, it was a full effort from the whole team. It was incredible to manage another victory, I did not feel full commitment [in my own effort], but the team was always there for me and I just wanted to finish it off because they worked for the whole day. It was all in today.

“When Pavel went so fast in the beginning [of the final climb] and also on the second-to-last climb, I thought there could be a good moment to attack. But at the end, we wanted to wait until the last climb.

“No, [I have no regrets from this season]. I think [the Giro d’Italia] is something that I learned from, and for sure, without this, I could not build myself in this way.

“Now it is good to finish my season like this. It is super nice, but this is the last race for me. It was crazy good.”

Giro del Veneto 2025 results:

1. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 3:24:29

2. Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +22″

3. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) s.t