This weekend in Paris, 22-year-old Isaac del Toro Romero from Ensenada, Baja California, finished third overall at the Tour de France — the most prestigious bicycle race on Earth. In 113 editions, no Mexican had ever done it.
The Tour is not one race. It’s 21 stages across three weeks, more than 3,300 kilometers, and over 54,000 meters of climbing — like riding up Everest six times. Every great climber alive lines up. Most go home broken.
To understand the story, you need to know one name first: RAÚL ALCALÁ.
In 1986, Alcalá became the first Mexican ever to ride the Tour. In 1987, he won the white jersey as best young rider. He won stages in 1989 and 1990 and finished 8th overall both years. Eighth. That was the ceiling — for 36 years.
But on July 26th, Isaac del Toro finished THIRD. And he also won the white jersey — the same one Alcalá carried home in 1987. Thirty-nine years apart, two Mexicans, the same jersey.
Isaac’s road was anything but easy:
In 2022 he represented Mexico at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships with poor equipment and, by his own account, not always enough food. He finished 20th anyway — the second-best result from the Americas.
Later that year, he crashed at the Tour de l’Avenir. Broken femur. Damaged artery. Months of recovery. He asked for one more year to chase the dream.
In 2023 he came back and WON the Tour de l’Avenir — the first Mexican ever to take the sport’s most important under-23 race.
In 2025, he wore the pink jersey of the Giro d’Italia for 11 days, won Stage 17 solo, and finished 2nd overall — the first Mexican ever on a Grand Tour podium.
In 2026, before the Tour even started, he had already won the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico.
One more detail worth knowing:
On Saturday, July 25th, on the brutal Alpine stage over the Col du Télégraphe and the legendary Galibier, finishing on the 21 hairpins of Alpe d’Huez, Tadej Pogačar — already certain of victory — set his own ambitions aside. He rode at the front for his teammate. He controlled the pace, shut down attacks, and kept looking back to make sure Isaac was still there.
The best cyclist in the world spent the hardest day of the race protecting a young Mexican’s podium.
What almost nobody knew: Isaac had been ill for most of the third week.
He crossed the line and cried.
“Pressure is a privilege, and today I really felt it.”
FINAL STANDINGS — TOUR DE FRANCE 2026
- Tadej Pogačar — 73h 56m 26s (his 5th Tour title)
- Remco Evenepoel — +6m 26s
- Isaac del Toro — +9m 42s
Maybe there were no caravans in the streets. Maybe most of the country wasn’t watching.
But twenty years from now, when a kid in Ensenada or Oaxaca or Guadalajara asks who was the first Mexican to stand on the podium of the Tour de France, there will only ever be one answer:
El Torito. Twenty-two years old. From Baja California. 🇲🇽
Raúl Alcalá opened the door in 1986. Isaac del Toro walked through it
Source: Latinus
