A stage that could have been pyrotechnic turns out to be much more tactical and blocked than expected, and on the final stretch in Barcelona the man you don’t expect appears. It’s Isaac Del Toro, who takes the entire last 700 meters to launch his captain Tadej Pogacar. But the Mexican goes so fast that it hurts Jonas Vingegaard’s yellow jersey – the Dane still manages to keep it – and so the Slovenian bites the brakes and turns into a gentleman, granting the victory to his praetorian.
The embrace between the two UAE Emirates-Xrg teams after the finish line was very long and intense, with the young South American excited about his first victory at the Tour de France. The second stage of the Grande Boucle, still entirely on Catalan soil, starts from Tarragona with a classic-like route, which includes various passages on the final circuit of Montjuic. Three of them go on the run, Molenaar, Engelhardt and Van den Broek, but their fate is clear right from the start. The Emirati team immediately began to control the race, with the clear aim of making it clear that they – and not Vingegaard’s Visma – were the strongest men after the 12 seconds recorded in the initial team time trial. The laps pass, the tears pass and the long-awaited attack, however, is not there. However, Antonio Tiberi breaks away and collapses and loses almost six minutes: he should have been Bahrain’s top man, but the roads rejected him too soon. This brings us to -700 with a furious Del Toro who immediately creates a hole in the final ascent. 4 remain, while Seixas, Pidcock and the other big names who will lose three seconds are more difficult for morale than for the general. Then, however, Vingegaard feels the pinch and gives way a few metres, while Pogacar, vigilant, controls: he thinks about what to do, he evaluates, then he decides that the path of altruism is the best. He slows down and lets the South American cross the finish line first, who will have time to return the favor by working for him.
The words of the winner
«This victory is worth everything to me – the 22-year-old Del Toro, the first Mexican rider to get a stage at the Grande Boucle, said at the end of the race -. I am truly privileged to be in the strongest team. I thank my family and those who allowed me to live this dream, but I can only thank Tadej: being a companion of the best in the world is an honor. The plan was for him, but then things went differently.” Now the Tour will return to France, with a medium mountain stage with a difference in altitude of 3850 meters and an uphill finish in Les Angles. Nothing impossible, but it will still be terrain for the Barcelona protagonists themselves.