Mexican capitalizes on a tremendous team display to provoke race-winning move and outsprint rivals to the line atop iconic Superga climb
Wednesday 19 March, 2025
Playing the final few kilometres to perfection, UAE Team Emirates-XRG‘s young Mexican star Isaac del Toro claimed victory in the 2025 Milano-Torino on Wednesday afternoon. The 21-year-old recently impressed in Tirreno-Adriatico in service of eventual race winner Juan Ayuso, but given his own opportunity in Turin, the young climber rose to the fore and picked off his first ever one-day win.
The victory was no less than UAE Team Emirates-XRG deserved, with each and every rider of the Emirati squad producing a sterling display to set up Del Toro for the finale. It was Del Toro who provoked the race-winning attack alongside Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Pro Cycling), before the Mexican outsprinted both rivals to the line.
Taking a well-deserved bow as he crossed the line, Del Toro became the first winner of the world’s oldest Classic to triumph atop the Superga since the climb was last used in 2021. He becomes the first UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider to ever win the race, and ensures that the team enacts revenge after finishing 2-3-4 in last year’s edition.
In making Milano-Torino his first career one-day victory, Del Toro also becomes the first Mexican winner of the race in its 149-year history. Speaking shortly after the finish, Del Toro could not contain his delight at getting off the mark for 2025.
Del Toro: “I am super happy about it, the team worked really hard for this. I am super happy, really. I realise my first victory this year and I cannot be more happy. I really enjoy and I really like this race, and I cannot believe I made it. In the end, I played my cards and it is so special.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself but we know as a team how we want to play. [Adam] Yates put the whole confidence of the whole team in me and I just tried to finish their work. At the end it was super good, I tried to play as much as I could, and do just the necessary without spending too much energy. I think I played it well for the sprint and the last three attacks. We deserve it as a team.
“It means a lot, I cannot be more happy about today.”
Earlier in the day, UAE Team Emirates-XRG had held a stranglehold over the race, always on hand to keep the gap of the breakaway in check. Through the likes of Julius Johansen, Vegard Stake Laengen and the Gen-Z talent Enea Sambinello, the Emirati squad remained an ever-present at the head of the peloton, before the team’s climbers put their face in the wind as the final ascent of the Superga neared.
It was Igor Arrieta who spearheaded proceedings and dropped his teammates off in perfect position at the base of the final climb. Standing at 4.1km in length with an average gradient of 9.3%, the ascent lies on the outskirts of Turin and has become the traditional finish to Milano-Torino.
Used as the finishing climb for the first time since 2021, the Superga became Alessandro Covi’s playground on Wednesday afternoon, with the young Italian sweeping up the remainder of the day’s breakaway with his own acceleration from the base. Ostensibly in position to set a hard pace on behalf of Del Toro, Covi briefly held a gap over the peloton before guiding the bunch to 3.2km to go.
At this point, the bunch was noticeably reduced and it was Adam Yates’ turn to tee up the Mexican. Yates had made it clear at the beginning of the day that he, a three-time podium finisher, would work for his younger teammate, and in the Brit, Del Toro had the perfect foil. Yates’ tempo at the front of the peloton would see most riders fall through the trapdoor, with the front group reduced to only the UAE Team Emirates pair and a handful of rivals.
From 3km to 1.3km to go, Yates buried himself on behalf of Del Toro, with the 21-year-old capitalising and attacking over the top of his teammate. Pressing on with aggression, Del Toro was only followed by Tulett and the impressive Halland Johannessen, whose brother Anders was well in the mix until Yates’ pull.
Once Del Toro, Tulett and Halland Johannessen had gone clear, the trio would not be caught again before the finish. Racing with tactical nous beyond his years, Del Toro forced Tulett to both close a brief gap to the Norwegian, and lead out the sprint within the final few hundred metres. Waiting with baited breath on Tulett’s wheel, Del Toro was raring to strike.
It was with a little over 200m to go that Del Toro stole a march and powered around Tulett, with Halland Johannessen’s hopes extinguished and the Visma-Lease a Bike climber unable to produce a response. Celebrating with a bow as he crossed the line, Del Toro claimed UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s 19th victory of the campaign and did so with the fastest-recorded ascent of Superga in recent years.
Not letting up his own effort before the line, Yates crossed the finish in fourth position to round out a tremendous afternoon for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
Milano-Torino results
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 3:56:49
- Ben Tulett (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1″
- Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) +9″
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +24″
