Del Toro Best but Misses Yellow

Isaac Del Toro underlined his storming pre-Tour form with a stirring stage win on day 7 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes on Saturday, triumphing atop the Grand Colombier climb.

The Mexican rider drove clear of Matteo Jorgenson and others with 4.2km remaining, bridging to his former UAE Emirate-XRG teammate Juan Ayuoso (Lidl-Trek) with 1.7km to go. He attacked him almost immediately and went on to win, with Ayuso 24 seconds back. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) was third, 38 seconds back, with Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar Team) at 41.

“I was not full of confidence but I really wanted to try to take the win today,” said Del Toro.

French hero Paul Seixas crashed approximately 30km in the stage and found himself almost four minutes back. He had a very long chase and only rejoined with 37km left, with the energy used plus the effects of the crash seeing him dropped with 8km left.

He fought hard to limit his losses, conceding 1:21 to Del Toro in finishing seventh, while overnight leader Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) lost 2:33 but held onto yellow.

He will begin the final stage 42 seconds ahead of Jorgenson, and a further seven up on Del Toro.

The latter is a big threat, not least because he is becoming better at judging his efforts.

“It is kind of hard for me to manage these long climbs but I get used to it and I am going better and better every race,” he said.

“I think today was not my best performance, but I was up there. So I am super happy to still arrive in good shape and keep going in this direction. For sure I am still hungry, so it is something that keeps me alive for the next races.”

The GC favorites go all in

Stage 7 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was one of the toughest of the week, with over 3700 meters of climbing and a mountain top finish at the summit of the hors categorie Grand Colombier. There were a number of big-name non-starters, including Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost).

Seixas was hoping to overcome his 3:06 overnight deficit to Tuckwell and leap from seventh to first in the GC but instead he crashed around 30km in the stage and ended up over three minutes behind the peloton. With the UAE Emirates XRG team and others leading the peloton, he and his Decathlon CMA CGM team had to expend a lot of energy in the case.

Out front multiple attacks were being fired off, with Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Laurens De Plus, Carlos Rodriguez (Netcompany Ineos), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), George Bennett (NSN), and Clément Berthet (Groupama-FDJ United) leading the race into the final 50km. However Simmons dropped back to help his teammates set up Ayuso for his big move.

Sexias finally rejoined the peloton with 37km, some 25km before the attackers were finally reeled in. He had used huge amounts of energy and had no answer when Lidl-Trek drove the pace on the lower slopes of the Grand Colombier and put him and race leader Tuckwell out the back with 8km remaining.

Ayuso made his big move 6.7 from home, with only Ben Tulett able to hold him. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider dropped back soon afterwards to help team leader Matteo Jorgenson, who in turn put in a big stint at the front soon afterwards.

However this effort left the American exposed to a big attack by Del Toro with 4.2km remaining. He caught and dropped Ayuoso with 1.7km to go and raced in for what is his first-ever pro win in France.

One stage remains and he still has 49 seconds to make up on Tuckwell. Is the goal now to win the GC?

“It was always the goal,” he said.

Sunday will show if that goal can finally be attained.