UAE's Montjuïc Masterclass: Del Toro Wins Stage 2 as Pogačar Gifts a Barcelona One-Two

UAE’s Montjuïc Masterclass: Del Toro Wins Stage 2 as Pogačar Gifts a Barcelona One-Two

Curated by Gary Edgington · Race Results

If Stage 1 belonged to Jonas Vingegaard, Stage 2 belonged to the team he most needs to fear. Over 168.5 kilometres from Tarragona to a punishing finish on the Montjuïc wall above Barcelona, UAE Team Emirates–XRG turned the race into a show of force — and finished it with a flourish, as Tadej Pogačar sat up in the final metres to hand young Mexican Isaac del Toro his first Tour de France stage win. It was a one-two that flattered no one but themselves. Here is how the day unfolded, from the first attacks out of Tarragona to the drama on the Olympic Stadium ramp.

A fast start and the day’s break

The stage did not settle quietly. After a quick, nervy start along the Catalan coast, a small breakaway finally forced its way clear: Alex Molenaar, carrying the hopes of the Spanish wildcard team Caja Rural–RGA, went up the road alongside Felix Engelhardt and Frank van den Broek. With the first half of the route running flat past the beach resorts around Sitges, the trio were allowed a sensible leash — the kind of break that colours a stage without ever truly threatening it, given the savage finishing circuit waiting in Barcelona.

Del Toro’s scare

The first real jolt came with roughly 60 kilometres to go, and it struck the man who would ultimately win. Del Toro suffered a mechanical and slid backwards through the convoy, losing significant ground before he could get a bike change. It could have ended his day; instead, UAE’s strength in depth answered the problem. Domestique Nils Politt dropped back to shepherd him, and the pair drove hard to claw their way back into the peloton before the racing turned serious. The scare would soon look like a footnote — but at the time it was a genuine threat to UAE’s plans.

UAE seize the Montjuïc circuit

Almost all of the stage’s 2,500 metres of climbing was saved for the finale, and it was there that UAE took the race by the throat. On the finishing laps — a short, brutal wall through Montjuïc Park climbed three times — the team simply drilled the front. Brandon McNulty set a merciless tempo first, then Adam Yates took over, and the pace did exactly what it was designed to do: the sprinters were shelled out the back the moment the road tilted up, and the front group shrank lap by lap until only the strongest were left. This was a puncheur’s finish, and UAE were racing it like men who wanted to break the field rather than outfox it.

The favourites trade blows

Near the top of the final ascent, the attacks came thick and fast. Adam Yates surged to keep UAE on the front, with Pogačar poised behind him. Then Tobias Halland Johannessen tried to force a gap, Richard Carapaz jumped onto the move, and Pogačar — alert as ever — covered it himself. When Carapaz gambled on the short descent that followed, trying to steal clear where others hesitated, Pogačar personally chased him down and closed the door. Vingegaard, in yellow, stayed glued to the action, refusing to be caught out. None of the overall favourites cracked; but it was Pogačar, not the race leader, dictating who was allowed to go.

The gift on the line

The last rise to the finish by the Olympic Stadium set up the moment of the day. Pogačar opened the sprint, looking every bit the rider about to take the stage and slice into Vingegaard’s lead. Then he eased. Alongside him, del Toro accelerated through in the closing metres, and Pogačar — his mechanical-hit teammate, back from the dead an hour earlier — let him cross first. It was del Toro’s maiden Tour de France stage victory, and a pointed statement of UAE’s depth: a team so strong its leader could afford to give a win away. Pogačar’s uncontained celebration at the team bus afterwards told you how much the one-two meant to them.

Who won, who lost

The winners were obvious: del Toro, for the stage and the storybook comeback, and UAE as a whole, who put two riders on the front step and reminded every rival of their numbers. Pogačar took second and, with it, the time bonus that halved his deficit to the lead. The losers were the fast men — the pure sprinters who never had a hope on a wall this steep, repeated three times — and, in a small way, the rivals watching UAE turn the screw so early. Behind the UAE pair, Remco Evenepoel took third and Vingegaard fourth on the same time, with Mattias Skjelmose the next across at three seconds. There was a sour note for UAE too: the race jury heavily penalised one of the team’s mechanics over the chaos of del Toro’s bike change, a reminder that the day’s drama had rough edges.

The overall picture

Crucially, Vingegaard did enough. He finished with the other favourites and kept the yellow jersey he seized in the Barcelona team time trial, though his cushion is thinner now: Pogačar has climbed to second, just 6 seconds back, having taken bonus seconds two days running. Evenepoel sits third at 15 seconds, del Toro fourth at 16, and Juan Ayuso fifth at 19. Two stages in, the top of the race is a tight knot of the pre-race favourites — with UAE looking, for now, like the strongest hand at the table. For newcomers, our guides explain how the Tour is won and what the jerseys mean and why a finish like Montjuïc suits explosive puncheurs. The mountains, and the real reckoning, are still to come.

Stage 2 — how they finished

1. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) — stage winner
2. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) — same time
3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) — same time
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) — same time (retains yellow)
5. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl–Trek) — +0:03

General classification: 1. Vingegaard; 2. Pogačar +0:06; 3. Evenepoel +0:15; 4. del Toro +0:16; 5. Ayuso +0:19.

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