Mexico beyond del Toro

In 2022, when Isaac was already on the road to become a professional cyclist, he had a serious injury. How did you support him during that difficult time and also during the recovery?

It was really bad. He crashed on July and he pinched the femoral artery [in the leg]. He was n a critical state. Fortunately, the operation went well. Besides being physically hard, the accident was also mentally hard. Being a 17 year old kid alone in Europe, plus having the dream to race the Tour de l’Avenir and suddenly, he doesn’t even know if he is going to be able to race anymore, it was shocking. So we talked a lot and I gave him psychological support. But we all know he is a really strong guy, so he started recovering really fast. After two months, he started riding! In the beginning, he was impatient and was doing crazy rides, because he wanted to start next season strong, so I had to calm him down and say ‘let’s go step by step’.

Recovery is crucial in a rider who wants to win Grand Tours, don’t you agree?

Yes, it’s crucial for sure and you can see, in Course de la Paix, Sibiu, Valle d’Aosta and Avenir, that Isaac was feeling better each day that passed.

Despite his good results in those races, all across Europe, Isaac del Toro was not amongst the favourites for the Tour de l’Avenir. Do you think Isaac was overlooked, maybe because he came from a peripheral country like Mexico?

Yes, it does have to do of course. To be honest, I knew he was capable of fighting for the podium, he was doing better each stage and in Valle d’Aosta, he demonstrated that he was one of the strongest riders. But unfortunately it’s not common to see Mexicans up there [in cycling], it has to do with this.

Despite Isaac Del Toro’s nationality having helped temper many of the expectations arising from his performances in the major races he participated in, the young Mexican cyclist began to surprise even his own coach.

Two to three weeks before the Avenir, we did an altitude training camp; I saw his numbers and he was literally producing the same wattage that he did in Aosta and all those stage races at high altitude, and that’s really hard to do, so I knew he was getting even more in shape. In Aosta he was definitely one of the best but Avenir is an even harder race, it’s like the Tour de France compared to the Giro and the Vuelta. I knew he could still fight for top-3, but what he did was even higher than my expectations.

A future (already present) champion, leading a young generation, with a good structure to support them. The reality of Mexican cycling seems to contrast a lot with that of others sports. What is the secret of Mexican cycling?

The reality is that Mexico is all about football. So the government doesn’t support other sports at all. Cycling is growing a lot (things like Netflix are really helping) but before that, cycling wasn’t a big sport. There’s always been issues and fortunately, this project is financed by a private investor [A.R. Monex], it doesn’t depend on the Mexican government. It’s really great that they have been able to put this project together and we can see the results in the short time. There is a lot of talent in Mexico, but there were no opportunities before; now there are. The riders have the opportunity to race in the cycling level of Europe and all this has given results.

Mexico has always had talent in cycling: Raul Alcalá won stages in the Tour de France in the late 1980s, while Julio Alberto Pérez conquered the Passo Pordoi in the 2001 Giro d’Italia, to name some examples. However, talent needs opportunities to shine, opportunities that are now provided by the A.R. Monex Pro Cycling Team, which started with state funding but has since severed ties with its national federation, to the extent that it now operates exclusively from Europe.

What will happen next, we still don’t know. I hope that a lot of people open their eyes and see that Mexico can be up there, not only in cycling but in all sports. There is talent, we need the support, we need the opportunities, we need the organizations like Monex, so we can be in the best competitions in the world.