The rainbow jersey was within touching distance. After 273.4 kilometers of attacks, climbs, and exhaustion in Montreal, Isaac del Toro crossed the line fifth – just one second from the bronze medal. But the Mexican prodigy did not celebrate. Instead, the weight of what had just slipped away brought him to tears.
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For most riders, fifth at a World Championship would be a career-defining result. For Del Toro, it felt different. He had arrived believing Mexico could win, and after spending the day fighting at the front, he could not hide his disappointment. “I am very satisfied with my effort,” he said. “I left nothing until the finish line. But I am not happy. We knew we could win.”
That ambition had shaped Mexico’s entire race. Del Toro repeatedly made his presence felt in the decisive moves, helping put pressure on the favorites before Brandon McNulty eventually escaped with around 32 kilometers remaining. The American held on for gold, while Michael Matthews and Mathieu van der Poel completed the podium.
The result still marked a historic day for Mexican cycling. But Del Toro was already thinking about what could have been. “We didn’t win, but we took another step forward in the ambitions and the mentality we believe in for these kinds of races,” he said. “We came to be present.”
There was no hiding his frustration, especially after Mexico had committed to the race with a clear purpose. “Nothing was said to me other than the rainbow jersey – that’s what we came for,” Del Toro explained. “That was the only mentality.” He even admitted that he might have handled the final sprint differently. “Maybe in the sprint I should have positioned myself better,” he said.
But the disappointment in Montreal only tells part of Del Toro’s story. To understand why fifth place could feel so painful for a rider still just 22, it helps to look at the remarkable journey that brought him to the world championship stage.
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The tears in Montreal made sense when viewed against the extraordinary rise that brought Del Toro to this point. Born in Ensenada, Baja California, in 2003, he started cycling as a youngster before breaking through internationally with his victory at the 2023 Tour de l’Avenir. He became the first Mexican rider to win the prestigious under-23 race.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG quickly recognized what Mexico had on its hands. Del Toro joined the team in 2024 and soon began producing results that pushed him beyond prospect status. He finished second at the 2025 Giro d’Italia, won a stage and the young rider classification, and spent much of the race wearing the pink jersey.
Then came 2026. Del Toro collected overall victories at the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Tour d’Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes before making his Tour de France debut. He won Stage 2 and eventually finished third overall, taking the white jersey as the race’s best young rider. Reuters reported that Tadej Pogačar even helped Del Toro secure that podium place during the final mountain stage.
That momentum carried into Montreal. With Pogačar absent from the World Championships, Del Toro entered the race as one of the riders expected to challenge for the rainbow jersey. His form was hardly a secret either: just two weeks earlier, he had won the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on the same roads that would later host the World Championship race.
Yet the World Championships demanded something different. Unlike his UAE team, Del Toro had to rely on a much smaller Mexican squad. Before the race, he acknowledged that reality and said he would need to be smart. The names around him – Eder Frayre, Edgar Cadena, Ulises Castillo, José Antonio Escárcega, and Carlos García – could not provide the same depth as cycling’s major nations.
Still, Mexico refused to disappear.
Del Toro attacked, chased, and kept himself among the contenders deep into the six-hour battle. When McNulty made his decisive move, Del Toro helped drive the pursuit and later accelerated on the Mont Royal climb, dropping several major contenders. But the chase hesitated in the closing kilometers, allowing McNulty to stay away and claim the world title.
For Del Toro, the finish line brought two emotions at once. Pride, because Mexico had shown it belonged among cycling’s biggest nations. And frustration, because the medal had been so close.
“We made a big change,” he said. “They’re going to have to battle much harder against us next year.”
That may have been the clearest message from his tears. Del Toro did not see fifth place as the destination. He saw it as proof that Mexico had moved closer, and that the next attempt could demand even more.