Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas battle

This duel is an appetizer before the season’s second Grand Tour, where Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, and Remco Evenepoel will line up. While those three giants with their deep palmarès head there, in Auvergne we will see a ferocious fight between Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas, and Juan Ayuso.

Why Del Toro can win the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes

Experience

After finishing second at the 2025 Giro d’Italia, Isaac del Toro approaches his third WorldTour season with poise, settled in the Emirati squad. He targets the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes with a clear goal: sharpen form before the Tour. That is where he must be for the team’s undisputed leader, Tadej Pogacar.

On the road to Barcelona, which will host the Grand Départ 2026, the Mexican has learned to race stage events astutely. This season he rode with great intelligence at UAE Tour and Tirreno–Adriatico, where he claimed the overall, dominating strong rivals such as Antonio Tiberi, Felix Gall, Primoz Roglic, and Matteo Jorgenson.

Isaac del Toro, a star of world cycling

Team strength

It is undeniable that Decathlon has taken a major step in its financial ambitions by adding a giant like CMA CGM among its naming partners. With them, the French outfit has lured riders such as Tiesj Benoot, Gregor Mühlberger, and Matthew Riccitello, among others.

Despite the high-profile reinforcements at the Savoyard formation, they will face a UAE team with a deep arsenal. Potentially even stronger than the French. Tim Wellens, Pavel Sivakov, Joao Almeida, Pablo Torres, and Benoit Cosnefroy are riders of proven value.

Even a potential marking duel between Juan Ayuso and Paul Seixas could play into the hands of an Emirati squad that knows how to contest these races with tactical nous without abandoning its forward-thinking style.

Race rhythm

Paul Seixas heads to the Grande Boucle as Decathlon’s leader, with a team built around him featuring Aurélien Paret-Peintre, the aforementioned Riccitello, and Léo Bisiaux as trusted climbers.

The gifted young Frenchman, well protected, must avoid going over the limit when it matters. An all-out effort at the former Dauphiné, showing bravery, power, and a higher peak than his main rival Del Toro, could cost him in July.

In these final steps, the Mexican, returning after injury at Itzulia, will need competitive kilometres at high intensity. With a secondary role at UAE Team and as Pogacar’s lieutenant, he has both the advantage and the imperative to chase race rhythm, allowing for harder efforts than the French prodigy.

And Seixas faces a major handicap if he tries to prove every day that he has no rival at the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.

Isaac del Toro’s victories in 2026