Isaac del Toro dismissed any suggestions that the fatigue of Strade Bianche could impact his chances at Tirreno-Adriatico but quickly left Sunday’s pre-race press conference, with reports swirling that he was not at his best for the week-long stage race.
The Mexican won the UAE Tour and leads UAE Team Emirates-XRG at Tirreno-Adriatico in the absence of Tadej Pogačar. He impressed at Strade Bianche, finishing third behind Pogačar and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMS CGM) after marking the French rider while Pogačar surged to victory.
Any sore legs and health problems for the Mexican will perhaps emerge during Monday’s time trial and then on the late gravel sector and uphill finish on stage 2 to San Gimignano. If Del Toro is not 100%, it could give GC rivals such as Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), two-time winner Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) a better chance of overall success.
“On this kind of course, it’ll be necessary to stay attentive every day. There’s no queen stage, anything can happen every day. I guess we’ll be in a constant state of stress.”
Roglič played down his chances on his season debut but Tiberi could be a real threat to Del Toro just as he was at the UAE Tour. He won the first mountain stage to Jebel Mobrah ahead of Del Toro but then lost overall victory when the Mexican surged away on the finish to Jebel Hafeet.
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