Isaac del Toro 🇲🇽

Ah, the Tour de l'Avenir, the Tour of France for the youngsters. How insightful it proves to be at times - especially for del Toro's case - who got snapped up by UAE directly after clinching the general classification in this year's 2023 race.

If you go and watch the race on GCN you'd be impressed. Strong climbing skills, strong descending, and consistent to boot. Not only that, but he really had no other teammates to help him complete the feat (Mexico's going through a bit of a rough patch in terms of their grassroots funnel).

Will joining UAE allow this youngster to shine? Potentially given how UAE generally has no plan and just let's all their riders attempt for wins. Del Toro is definitely the hottest young prospect at the moment so it will be interesting to see him perform at some of the week long stage races at World Tour level in 2024.

Rumour Note: Isaac del Toro is rumoured to be earning a salary 500k a year.

Strengths

Who do we write rider profiles of that can't climb well? We jest. There's a lot. But del Toro can climb, exceedingly well. The final stage of l'Avenir he pulled the majority of the climb, but only lost in the sprint to Pellizzari. On the Col de la Loze stage he eeked out the win from Riccitello nearing the line. On Col du Mont Cenis he was only seven seconds behind Archie Ryan to finish second. Overall he was extremely consistent with his climbing ability across varied climbing profiles.

To make the point however, he also came third in the general classification at the baby Giro in 2023 and was in the top five for all the mountain stages.

In terms of time trialing, while he's not at Riccitello's level quite yet (his fiercest competitor in l'Avenir) he was only 40 seconds behind him on on the course and finished third overall.

Place him on UAE's setup and we're betting that 40 second gap will disappate (not completely however, as Riccitello was on IPT's setup which isn't great either - but it's gotta be better than a development team from Mexico).

When to Bet

We're liking early season stage races in 2024 if the odds are long on him. The bookmakers may place him higher than he should be given he has name recognition however. So we're thinking hold off for the first few races as he gets his legs and lowers his odds, and then buy low during his first time trial of the season on the new setup.

Or potentially during a early season climb at a race they chuck him at - maybe the UAE tour, where they have that one day that's not a sprinter's fest. Have at it.