At the start of this Giro d’Italia, the name Isaac del Toro was little-known beyond cycling aficionados. Fast forward to the business end of the crucial final week, and Del Toro is among the favourites to win the race, having sported the leader’s pink jersey for eight days and picking up his first Grand Tour stage win on stage 17.
After a topsy-turvy Giro in which the pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic struggled and ultimately crashed out, a rider 14 years his junior, in only his second full year as a professional, raised far from the sport’s hinterlands of northern Europe, has assumed the mantle of leading one of the sport’s three biggest races.
