An incredible day for UAE Team Emirates – XRG at the Tour. In a spectacular Stage 2 finish on Montjuïc, it wasn’t just a win, but a one-two victory. This time, it wasn’t Tadej who crossed the line first, but his teammate Isaac del Toro, for whom it was his first Tour stage win.
Tadej finished the 168.5-kilometer test, which started in Tarragona, shoulder to shoulder with his teammate, with 3rd place taken by Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) and 4th by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike, who defended the yellow jersey.
Tadej is now in 2nd place, six seconds behind the Dane, but this time it wasn’t about seconds in the fight for the overall victory in Paris, but an outstanding team success. »
»It means really everything. I said before I’m a very privileged guy. You cannot believe how much we work as team to be here. Plenty of confidence by the whole team – this is the work of everybody, my family, my friends where I grew up. I cannot believe I just did in this attempt, it’s just insane,« del Toro said, absolutely thrilled with the victory. He became the second Mexican stage winner at the Tour, succeeding Raúl Alcalá, who won one stage in 1989 and one in 1990.
In front of the microphones, del Toro also recalled Tadej. He could have won, but he only made sure that victory wouldn’t be taken by any of the rivals of the UAE Team Emirates – XRG squad. »Also, to appreciate, Tadej – being the same team as him, the best team in the world is just really like full emotions. You cannot believe how it feels now for me, especially for my country, and everything that’s going on is just insane, really. Thanks to my teammates,« the 22-year-old Mexican added.
»At the team meeting we agreed that before the finish Tadej would talk with Isaac about what to do. That’s how it worked out: Tadej saw that Isaac could win, and we’re all thrilled that we won in that way. This happens to you once every few years—to pull off a performance like that at the Tour. Isaac did an enormous amount of work in the last kilometer and a half, but Tadej calculated that he could still win. Only he is capable of something like that,« said sports director Andrej Hauptman in assessing the team’s first one-two stage win at the Tour.
The Tour is bidding farewell to Barcelona. Tomorrow, Stage 3 will start in Granollers, and after 195.5 kilometers and 3,850 meters of elevation gain, this rolling test will finish in Les Angles, France. Due to forest fires that have spread in the French Pyrenees, there will be no spectators along the roads after crossing into France.