Isaac Del Toro, left, celebrates with Tadej Pogacar after he won the second stage of the Tour de France over 104.3 miles with the start in Tarragona and finish in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday. (AP photo)

In a gesture of sportsmanship which left his novice teammate stunned, cycling great Tadej Pogacar gifted victory to Isaac Del Toro on the second stage of the Tour de France on Sunday.

While Pogacar’s rival Jonas Vingegaard retained the overall race lead, the day belonged to Del Toro, a 22-year-old Mexican making his Tour debut.

“I’m super proud to have the level to manage these kind of situations,” Del Toro said. “I cannot believe I just did this, just full emotions. You cannot believe how it feels for me, especially for my country.”

With his first Tour stage win assured, courtesy of an assist, Del Toro urged his soccer countrymen — known as El Tri — to beat England at the World Cup in their round-of 16 match later Sunday in Mexico City.

“Of course we have these 11 guys ripping it up in the soccer,” he said. “They’re doing amazing.”

Arm on shoulder

Del Toro attacked on the 700-meter climb to the finish to put Pogacar in a position to win, but Pogacar instead slowed down and put his arm on Del Toro’s shoulder as he let him cross the line first.

Del Toro looked open-mouthed with surprise at the gesture from Pogacar, who is looking to win the race for the third straight time and fifth overall.

As an exhausted Del Toro sat on the ground to get his breath back on a hot day, Pogacar went over to tightly hug his UAE Emirates-XRG teammate, who looked emotional after clinching his first Tour stage win.

Belgium rider Remco Evenepoel finished the stage in third place, just ahead of Vingegaard in fourth spot. The top four all clocked a time of 3 hours, 40 minutes, 1 second, but with the top three receiving time bonuses, Vinegaard’s lead over Pogacar was trimmed from 12 seconds to six seconds.

“I am very satisfied to be honest. As I said yesterday I will just enjoy every day I have in the yellow jersey,” Vingegaard said. “So far, so good. I cannot complain with how the GC (General Classification) looks for now.”

Vingegaard is looking to win the Tour for the third time after triumphing in 2022 and ’23. The Danish rider took the yellow jersey on Saturday after leading his Visma-Lease a Bike team to victory in the opening-day time trial around Barcelona.

Stage 3

The three-week race hits the mountains for today’s 121.5-mile third stage, starting from Granollers in Spain — near to where Formula 1 used to hold pre-season testing — and concluding with a short but sharp uphill dart to Les Angles in the French Pyrenees.

Stage 3 features a 5.8-mile ascent up Col de Toses at an average gradient of 6.5%. The climb is ranked as Category 1, the second-hardest level behind Hors Categorie (which means beyond classification).

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