At the Giro d'Italia, the racing world was taken aback by Isaac del Toro. The Mexican rider has been sporting the pink jersey, that is worn by the leader of the event, since the end of stage nine. The Central American has looked and rode like a star in the making and the world of road racing is beginning to wake up to his talent.

However, the Ensenada rider is not the only person in his imediate circle to be a cycling prodigy, as his other half and girlfriend, Romina Hinojosa, is another talent in the making. Mexican road racers have had it harder than most ever since its cycling federation was suspended by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2022 for infringements regarding governance and electoral processes. However, the dysfuntion of their national cycling body resulted in both of their cycling paths crossing.

Del Torro and Hinojosa both came through the A.R. Monex set up, which is a cycling team that is based in San Marino. The team has given the opportunity to many Mexican riders to compete in Europe.

It's likely that the pair met and grew close to each other while training for their events in the tiny, landlocked country within central Italy. On Instagram pages, there are various pictures of the pair posing with each other, before or after a ride, but rarely posted by each other.

However, the nature of their pictures suggests cycling is at the top of their agenda, as almost all of their posts feature them clad in cycling gear with their helmet on.

Like Del Toro, Hinojosa has had to make many sacrifices for her cycling dream. When addressing the chaos around the Mexican federation, in an interview with , she said: "I decided for my sake to try to not depend on the Mexican federation and like go and explore in a different sense. It's something I can't control at the moment."

She added: "Being in Mexico, I knew I really I wanted to be a professional and I tried to do everything in my power to be my best cyclist self. But the reality is that the lifestyle there is not really oriented to that.

"When I went to Europe, I could focus just on being a cyclist because the team I was on, like they had a mechanic who focused on the bikes and there was a massage therapist and they helped with the food. And so I feel like I just focused on what I had to do as a cyclist."

Del Toro's agent, Alex Carera, confirmed their status together in an interview with . He did so while comparing Del Toro to his fellow UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate and world champion Tadej Pogacar.

Carera said: "There are similarities. One: they both always sit on their bikes with a smile on their faces. Two: they both have a girlfriend who also races - Urška igart and Romina Hinojosa ride for AG Insurance Soudal and for the Lotto team."

Considering the lack of communication Del Toro and Hinojosa have made about their status together, it's possible they would not have appreciated Carera's words. However, Del Toro has much bigger things on his mind.

He was a little-known cycling prospect before the event's beginning, but Del Toro stormed ahead and claimed the pink jersey at the end of the ninth stage. The Mexican looked to have the title in his hands when he finished second to Nicolas Prodhomme on stage 19, where he established a 43-second lead over next closest competitor, Richard Carapaz.

However, a tactical disaster from UAE Team Emirates has proved to be costly, as they urged Del Toro to focus only on Carapaz while riding up the challenging Colle delle Finestre, the biggest mountain climb of the month. They did not bank on Simon Yates of Team Visma-Lease-a-Bike making an incredible charge to the front, leaving them both in his wake.

The cat and mouse with Carapaz has surely cost Del Toro the title, while gifting Yates, who lost the 2019 title on the same mountain, an opportunity to steal their title from under their nose, despite the bookies ranking him at 25/1 to win it at the start of the day.