Pogačar gifts teammate Isaac del Toro stage 2 victory – Tour de France

Tour de France 2026

Stage 2

UAE Team Emirates-XRG showed their strength on the first road stage of the Tour de France as Isaac del Toro led home a one-two on the hilly stage 2 in Barcelona arm in arm with Tadej Pogačar.

The Mexican, riding his first road stage of the Tour de France, hit the front for the final rise to the line with 700 metres to go, seemingly poised to lead out his quadruple Tour-winning teammate, but Pogačar let him get a gap as he raced away from yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Pogačar caught up with Del Toro at the line, reaching out to celebrate with his teammate, while just behind it was Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) who came through to grab third place in front of Vingegaard.

UAE had controlled much of the final of the 168.5km stage from Tarragona, which imitated the famous final stage of the Volta a Catalunya, featuring three ascents of the steep climb through Montjuïc Park overlooking Barcelona.

First Brandon McNulty, then Adam Yates, set the pace on the front over the stage’s three ascents of the climb, before Del Toro hit the front inside the final kilometre for the final rise to the finish.

Nobody behind had any answer to the young Mexican’s powerful burst, with Pogačar happy for his teammate to stay ahead and take the second Grand Tour stage victory of his career.

Following the opening day team time trial, which saw Pogačar give up 12 seconds to Vingegaard as UAE finished third, the race around Barcelona was a revenge ride for UAE, who showed that, once again, they look to be the strongest team in the race.

The result means that, while Vingegaard remains in the yellow jersey overnight, his lead over the now-second-placed Pogačar has been reduced to six seconds. Evenepoel is third overall, 15 seconds down, while Del Toro is fourth at 16 seconds.

“It means really everything. I said before I’m a very privileged guy. You cannot believe how much we work as team to be here. Plenty of confidence by the whole team – this is the work of everybody, my family, my friends where I grew up. I cannot believe I just did in this attempt, it’s just insane,” Del Toro said after the stage.

“Also, to appreciate, Tadej – being the same team as him, the best team in the world is just really like full emotions. You cannot believe how it feels now for me, especially for my country, and everything that’s going on is just insane, really. This thanks to my teammates.

“We were going super fast in the final]. We predicted this can happen. At the top of the climb. I was not able to be in the top position, so then I was able to almost try to bring back Mathias Skjelmose. We make a plan for today, and I did it, but at the end the gap was bigger, so I just went with the flow to the finish line.

“This kind of opportunities don’t come almost ever. I’m super proud to be able to have the level to manage these kind of situations.”

The second stage of the Tour de France took the peloton down the Catalan coast from Tarragona back to Barcelona, with a 168.5km route which got hillier as the day went on.

The second-category Côte de Begues (6.1km at 6.5%), midway through the stage, stood as the first major climb of the Tour, while three ascents of the Côte du Château de Montjuïc (1.6km at 9.3%) – known for its role in the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya – were packed into the final 30km.

Riders were eager to get into the break during the first non-time trial kilometres of the Tour, and so several attacking groups jumped clear in the early kilometres of the stage, including Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL), twice a stage runner-up in the past two years.

An early crash saw Dorian Godon (Netcompany Ineos), Biniam Girmay (NSN), and Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) caught up, though all involved got going again.

Shortly afterwards, with 160km to go, the day’s breakaway went clear, as Van den Broek, Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla), and Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) struck out as a trio.

The pace remained high after they broke clear, and it wasn’t until around the 145km to go mark that the peloton let up and the elastic snapped. Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) gave lone chase, aiming to make the break a quartet, but the Frenchman couldn’t make any headway into the lead and gave up the ghost shortly afterwards.

Pinarello-Q36.5 took up the pacemaking job at the head of the peloton, the Swiss team limiting the breakaway’s advantage to two minutes on the flat first half of the stage. Later, Soudal-QuickStep and Alpecin-Premier Tech joined in on the run to the day’s intermediate sprint positioned just before the Côte de Begues.

The breakaway trio scooped up most of the points on offer, but behind it was Girmay, who beat Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) for fourth place as the trio grabbed 14, 12, and 10 points respectively. Further back, Soudal-QuickStep sprinter Tim Merlier took eight points.

The break hit the subsequent climb with a minute’s advantage over the peloton, now led by UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Van den Broek was brought back on the way up the hill as a struggling Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) dropped from the rear of the peloton.

Up front, Engelhardt and Molenaar battled on, holding a 30-second advantage heading into the final 70km. The peloton, not wanting to make a catch too early, let them hang out front on the road to Barcelona.

Engelhardt and Molenaar, their time almost up, shook hands with 40km to go, but that wasn’t quite the end of their adventure out front. The pair weren’t caught after all, and so they pushed back on again. They’d keep going for another 10km, at which point the peloton swallowed them up for good before charging on towards Montjuïc Park.

It was UAE who led the way up the first ascent of Montjuïc with Visma attendant just behind as the peloton slimmed down to a group of around 50 men. The situation was the same as they hit the climb for a second time, 16km out from the finish.

Nobody launched there, though several more riders lost contact at the rear. Up front, the big names of Vingegaard, Pogačar, and Pidcock were all present and preparing to do battle later on. Only around 35 riders were left up front at the top of the climb, the strongest puncheurs of the race waiting for the last challenge of the day, which lay just 2.5km from the finish line.

Brandon McNulty remained in control on the front with Pogačar, Del Toro, and Yates also there, while Vingegaard had the company of his own North American lieutenant, Sepp Kuss, plus Davide Piganzoli. McNulty continued until the 5.5km mark, at which point Uno-X Mobility took over.

Tiesj Benoot was next on the front, leading up the early slopes of the climb in service of his Decathlon CMA CGM leader, Paul Seixas. UAE lurked behind the Belgian, taking over with Yates 800 metres from the top of the climb. The Briton, third at the Tour three summers ago, kept the pace high enough to deter any attacks until the very last metres of the steep upper section of the climb.

Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) was the man to make a move, drawing out Seixas, Pogačar, Vingegaard, Del Toro, Remco Evenepoel and the other top GC contenders, but there was no uphill road left on which to make a separation, and so the big names started the descent together.

They’d stick together on the descent, despite an attempt by Mathias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) to go clear. Del Toro chased him down and hit the front with 700 metres to go before launching himself towards the line.

He still had work to do, but that was the winning move, and with Pogačar racing up behind him to join him just before the finish, the finish line snapshot was of a dominant ride by UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

Monday’s stage three sees the Tour de France cross the Pyrenees to land on home soil. It’s a tough day in the saddle, with 3,850 metres of climbing and an uphill finish on a route of 195.9 kilometres. Most elevation gain comes in the second half of the stage.

Stage 3 starts in Granollers, a suburb north of Barcelona, and the riders head towards the foothills of the Pyrenees over gently rolling roads. The 7.6-kilometre climb to Sant Feliu de Codines, averaging 4.5%, is effectively the only ascent in the first half of the stage.

The road begins to rise gradually in Ripoll and the riders crest the Collada de Toses 36 kilometres later. The final 9.3 kilometres climb at 6.5% before a long descent brings the peloton to Puigcerdà, practically on the French border. From there, the road climbs again for 11.4 kilometres at 4.1% up to the Col du Calvaire. With its summit at 1,836 metres above sea level, the Calvaire marks the highest point of the day. There’s 23.6 kilometres remaining at the summit.

After a descent of around 7 kilometres, the road rises again for 1.9 kilometres at 4%, before heading mostly downhill towards the Lac de Matemale. The riders skirt the northern side of the reservoir before the final climb begins in Les Angles. The finish line is set in the village’s ski area, after a 4.7-kilometre ascent at 4.6%, with the ultimate 1.7 kilometres ramping up to 6.5%.

Stage 2 result:

1. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG in 03:40:01
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, all same time
5. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek
6. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
7. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United
8. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious
9. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM
10. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5, all +3 seconds

General Classification:

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike in 04:01:48
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +6s
3. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +15s
4. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +16s
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +19s
6. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon-CMA CGM, +42s
7. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ United, +44s
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +45s
9. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain Victorious, +53s
10. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Pinarello-Q36.5, +1:00