Anonymous Del Toro forced to abandon in the Basque Country, Ardennes in danger?

Isaac del Toro has abandoned the Tour of the Basque Country during the third stage. The 22-year-old Mexican from UAE Emirates-XRG was impressive in the first weeks of this season, but proved to be a shadow of himself in the Basque Country.

Del Toro began his season as early as February in the UAE Tour, where he immediately won two stages and the overall classification. After a third place in Strade Bianche — in a supporting role for Tadej Pogačar — the Mexican was also convincingly the best in the Tirreno-Adriatico, including one stage victory.

After a domestique role in Milan-San Remo for Pogačar, del Toro shifted his focus to the Tour of the Basque Country, where he was seen as a top favourite alongside Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM). Seixas lived up to that status in the first two days, Del Toro did not.

Where the 19-year-old Frenchman won the opening time trial and the second stage with overwhelming superiority, Del Toro finished the time trial 51 seconds behind Seixas and in the tough second stage he even lost 1 minute and 43 seconds to the French wonderkid. That was not like Del Toro.

The reason for Del Toro's abandonment in stage 3 was not solely down to poor form. The organisation reported a crash involving the climber early in the third stage. With 80 kilometres still to go, Del Toro decided to call it quits.

Del Toro was scheduled to target the Ardennes classics, starting with the Amstel Gold Race on 19 April, followed by the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In the summer we expect to see him at the Dauphiné (now called Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes) and the Tour de France.

At the time of writing, nothing is yet known about the severity of Del Toro's injury or any change to his schedule.