Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) has delivered a rare public scolding to the hype machine that feeds modern cycling, rejecting the label of a "New Pogačar" for teammate Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG) and calling the constant comparisons "annoying".
Speaking to Rai's Radiocorsa at the A&J All Sports gala in Erbusco, the World Champion was visibly unimpressed with attempts to cast the Mexican prodigy as his ready-made heir.
"No, he is Isaac. He is Isaac. Everyone is themselves. I do not know why everyone has to make comparisons. Do not make them," Pogačar said when asked about Del Toro's rise and the 16 wins already chalked up on his palmarès.
He doubled down, making it clear this was not a throwaway line but a considered intervention. "Isaac is the new Isaac. He must be admired as Isaac Del Toro, not as the new someone else. It is annoying."
The remarks land at a very specific moment. Del Toro, winner of the 2023 Tour de l'Avenir and second overall at the 2025 Giro d'Italia, has seen each result fed into an eager narrative about the "next Pogačar". Reports that his five-minute power in training is in the same ballpark as Pogačar's only turned the volume up further.
Even within UAE Team Emirates XRG the hype has not always been dialled down, with sports director Fabio Baldato previously happy to talk publicly about Del Toro's numbers and potential. Now it is the team leader acting as Patron, stepping in to dampen the flames around a 22-year-old who has barely finished his first Grand Tour as a contender.
Cycling has seen this film before. The long line of "next Eddy Merckx" rarely ended well. Pogačar, still only 27 but already a multiple Tour de France winner and World Champion, sounds determined to make sure Del Toro is not the next cautionary tale.
"He should be admired as Isaac Del Toro," he repeated. Coming from a rider who lives permanently in the glare, it felt less like a cliché and more like a warning to the rest of the sport.
Vuelta or Worlds, not both
In the same appearance Pogačar also sketched the outlines of an intimidating 2026 calendar. The final two Monuments missing from his collection sit high on the wish list.
Milan–San Remo and Paris–Roubaix remain the gaps in a Monument set that already includes the Tour of Flanders, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Il Lombardia. Add in a Tour de France defence and a third consecutive rainbow jersey on the hilly Montreal circuit and you have a season that would stretch even Pogačar's elastic limits.
Into that mix comes the 2026 Vuelta a España, which will start with a time trial on the Formula 1 circuit in Monaco on 22 August, effectively outside Pogačar's front door. The lure is obvious, but so is the cost.
"In fact it [the Vuelta] does not get along very well with the World Championships in Canada, but it is nice that the Vuelta starts from Monaco," he admitted to Radiocorsa. The subtext was clear. A Tour–Vuelta–Worlds sequence, across three countries and two continents in a little over two months, would be a brutal proposition even for him.
For now, his 2026 programme remains a puzzle still to be solved. The message around Del Toro, however, was anything but ambiguous. In a sport obsessed with finding the next big thing, its current biggest thing has asked everyone, firmly, to stop turning his teammate into a reflection and start seeing him as a rider in his own right.
Cover picture credit: Picture by Zac Williams/SWpix.com
