Romina Hinojosa dreams big alongside Isaac Del Toro: 'The rainbow jersey together'

They are far from the first couple to live inside the same peloton bubble. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Dylan van Baarle are doing it at the very top, as are Tadej Pogačar and Urška Žigart, Magdeleinde Vallieres and Cian Uytebroeks are another example, and so are Mikkel Bjerg and Emma Norsgaard, to name only a few. It is a familiar dynamic in cycling, two careers running side by side, with support, sacrifice, and the regular calendar clash.

In conversation with Sporza the Mexican cyclist opened up about her relationship. It all started at the Tour de l’Avenir in 2023. Del Toro won the men’s race, while Hinojosa raced the women’s edition, with the Mexican teams staying in the same hotel. “At first it was nothing more than eye contact,” she says. 

Her friends caught on quickly. “My girlfriends quickly realised I had a crush on Isaac and they teased me about it,” Hinojosa adds. She wrote a love letter as a joke. “It wasn’t meant for Isaac to get that letter. But through a friend it happened anyway,” she says.

Del Toro treated it as a sign to act. “Isaac saw that letter as an opening. Because he had just won the Tour de l’Avenir, he had extra confidence to come and talk to me,” she explains. The conversation lasted for hours and bled into her decisions about racing. “I asked Isaac for advice about my cycling future. On his recommendation I accepted Lotto’s offer.”

This year marked Del Toro’s big breakthrough, especially at the Giro d’Italia, where he spent a long spell in the Maglia Rosa. Hinojosa took a week away from her own programme to follow the race. “Because I would not have missed that for anything in the world. It was an unbelievable experience. Everywhere I heard: ‘That is the girlfriend of the pink jersey.’”

She also witnessed the crash back to earth on the Colle delle Finestre, where Del Toro lost the jersey to Simon Yates.

Afterwards, she expected the disappointment to swallow the evening. “I thought that after losing the Giro Isaac would not want to talk for hours. That is how he used to react when things did not go the way he wanted,” she says. 

Instead, she noticed a change. “But after that Giro stage Isaac behaved really maturely and could put it into perspective. That surprised me a lot. He knows he is still young and that there are good years ahead.”

This year, Del Toro will not race the Giro d’Italia, as he is set to support Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France.

Hinojosa is trying to make sure her own story does not become a footnote. Last year, her best result was 15th at the Tour of Guangxi. This season, she wants more, and she believes her route to it is not as obvious as people assume.

“Last year the team thought I was a climber. But I knew I was not a pure climber, even if I climb well,” she says.

Based in Ninove during the season, she has discovered she can handle the cobbled chaos better than expected. “The team was surprised that I held my line so well in the chaos of the Flemish races. That is why they decided to select me for more cobbled classics,” she adds. Her season begins with the Omloop het Nieuwsblad, followed by more cobbles, the Ardennes classics and the Vuelta.

Her biggest dream, however, sits in a different race altogether, the World Championships. “Riding around in the rainbow jersey together with Isaac. That would be incredible!”