Isaac del Toro finished sixth in the Tour de Francia general classification on his debut. The 22-year-old from Ensenada did it after UAE Team Emirates-XRG took third in the 19.7-kilometer team time trial in Barcelona.
Barcelona sets the first gaps
The opening day was a team time trial, so the first standings were shaped by one collective effort. Team Visma | Lease a Bike won the stage in 21:47.87, Netcompany INEOS was second, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG came home third.
Del Toro crossed into the race’s first meaningful classification picture 26 seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard, who took the yellow jersey. Tadej Pogacar finished third overall, 12 seconds back, with Del Toro working alongside him before the final climb to the finish.
Pogacar, Vingegaard, Del Toro
That opening result put UAE Team Emirates-XRG in immediate catch-up mode against the team that won the stage. It also left Del Toro inside the top tier of the general classification from day one, with Remco Evenepoel fifth, Davide Piganzoli seventh, and Florian Lipowitz eighth around him on the board.
The Tour de Francia rarely hands out clean separation before the mountains, but this start already drew a line through the race. Del Toro now carries a sixth-place debut into the next phase, while the gap to Vingegaard gives him a precise number to work against rather than a vague early-season snapshot.
For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the opening stage did enough to keep Pogacar in the frame and Del Toro close to the front. For Del Toro, sixth on debut is the kind of first result that changes how every climb is read from here.
