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MEXICO CITY — The Mexican Foreign Ministry issued a clarifying statement Monday confirming that Isaac del Toro’s historic Stage 2 victory at the Tour de France does not count as beating France, ending three days of excitement among fans who had already begun printing T-shirts.
Del Toro, a 22-year-old from Ensenada, became the first Mexican in 36 years to win a Tour stage, crossing the finish line arm-in-arm with his Slovenian teammate, a gesture widely praised as sportsmanship but mistaken by some, still in the grips of World Cup fever, as a penalty-kick celebration. The presence of Merlin the duck in a yellow jersey only added to the sense of confusion.
“We are thrilled for Isaac and for cycling,” said a spokesperson for the Mexican Football Federation, adding that the achievement was “completely unrelated” to the national team’s run in the 2026 FIFA World Cup; this did not retroactively improve Mexico’s head-to-head record against France, which remains a sensitive subject dating back to at least 2010.
President Claudia Sheinbaum congratulated Del Toro on social media with a single word, “felicidades,” a message that was reposted over 40,000 times, analyzed for hidden World Cup subtext by at least two morning talk shows, and eventually confirmed by presidential aides to mean exactly what it said and nothing more.
Sports historians noted that the last Mexican to win a Tour de France stage, Raúl Alcalá in 1990, also did not defeat France in a World Cup match that year, a pattern researchers are calling “statistically consistent” but “emotionally difficult to accept.”
By Tuesday, the stage route itself had become a minor point of national pride after fans discovered it passed through both French and Spanish territory near the finish, prompting one radio host to declare, on air, that Mexico had “technically played away games in France and Spain and won,” a claim the Tour de France press office declined to dignify with a response.
Del Toro, when reached for comment, said only that he was “very happy” and “did not realize this was about soccer.”
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