Aussies stunned by Mexican gun's 'incredible' surge

Mexico’s Isaac Del Toro (UAE-Emirates) stunned the professional peloton on the third stage of the Tour Down Under launching a late move to nab line honours also grabbing the overall lead.

It was a relatively calm day until the final ascent of the Fox Creek climb where Aussie national champ Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) shredded the peloton.

The pace proved too much for then race leader Sam Welsford (Bora-Hansgrohe), the West Australian losing just over a minute to eventual stage winner Del Toro.

LIVE: Australian Open 2024 day five

Plapp’s attack was quickly neutralised by a slimmed down but also disorganised peloton, opening the door for the late opportunists.

Isaac Del Toro Romero of Mexico and UAE Team Emirates celebrates at the finish line as stage winner after stage three of the 24th Santos Tour Down Under.

It was amongst this chaos and confusion of riders looking for their team leaders that the young Mexican attacked inside the final 3km, the debutant timing his move to perfection.

Del Toro’s win is a landmark victory for Mexican cycling, claiming the North American country’s first win and leaders’ jersey at world tour level.

“It’s incredible to win,” he said. “I need to finish and try to enjoy it, it’s still my first race at the world tour.”

While it wasn’t his rider who won today but Jayco-AlUla’s Sport Director Mathew Hayman praised the young star for seizing the opportunity, who at only 20-years-old and on debut is living up to his reputation.

“He hasn’t disappointed has he, that was some real racing nous there, that’s not something a director can tell a rider to do, that’s spur of the moment he felt it and he went for it so hats off to him,” said Hayman.

Isaac Del Toro Romero celebrates his Tour Down Under stage victory.

The Australian Director is well aware of just how important Del Toro’s stage win is today, the bonus seconds propelling him into the race lead which history tells us the Tour Down Under can often be decided by.

“We’ve made a bit of a living of collecting bonus seconds here and winning this tour so we’re very wary of other riders picking up seconds and the more the climbers get seconds the harder it is going to be for Simon (Yates) come the last two stages,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Australian team might be rueing a missed opportunity as they started the stage backing Plapp to be the opportunistic in the finale, but it was his teammate Caleb Ewan who finished fifth after surviving the final climb. Ewan’s performance was a welcome surprise for his director as the experienced sprinter is hopefully close to getting past an illness that’s plagued him the week before the race.

Isaac Del Toro Romero celebrates on the podium, wearing the orange leader’s jersey.

“After yesterday we thought the stage was probably too hard for Caleb, he was hopeful going into this tour he could get over this climb but after his sickness we thought let’s focus on the sprint stages,” he said.

“I’d written him off a bit and knowing Welsford had already been dropped but next thing you know he pops up in the (front) group.

“Good to see he’s got that form back”.

A final two sprint opportunities lay ahead of the peloton before a decisive weekend that will undoubtedly shape the general classification.