This 19-Year-Old Wants to Beat Pogačar at the Tour. He’s Going Training Crazy to Make it Happen

Paul Seixas wants to beat Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France, and he’s climbing every mountain he can find to make it happen.

The 19-year-old wunderkind just completed a ridiculous 16-day altitude camp that accumulated the same elevation gain as a grand tour.

With a total of 1,900km of riding and 48,000m climbing in 63 hours, it’s a bonkers training block that will louden the purists who are wailing that “the kid’s too young.”

As a reminder, Seixas will be the youngest rider to start the Tour de France in 89 years when he lines up alongside Pogi, Jonas, and Remco Evenepoel in Barcelona on July 4.

Not that he or Decathlon CMA-CGM thinks age matters, of course.

Seixas is gunning for King Pog, no matter what the stuffy old-schoolers say.

“I’m only 19, but as I’ve already said, age is neither a hindrance nor an excuse. It’s not my mindset or my vision of cycling to line up for the Tour de France simply to gain experience,” Seixas said when he confirmed he’ll debut this summer at the Tour.

“I will be aiming for the best possible overall ranking.”

Preparing for Pogačar at the Dauphiné

Seixas parachuted down from Sierra Nevada on Friday and immediately spent two days reconning key Pyrénéan stages of the Tour de France. He took a Strava KOM on the mythical Col du Tourmalet to put a few points on his aura.

Seixas is clearly leaving no stone unturned – and no kilometer unridden –  to be ready for the Tour de France.

Now he’s got to put his Pogačar-slaying capacity to the test at the Critérium du Dauphiné (now called the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), which starts Sunday.

Seixas has gotten so good in the past 12 months that he’ll start the prestigious 8-day race as super-favorite.

Frustratingly – or perhaps tantalizingly – none of Seixas’ anticipated rivals for the TDF will be racing.

Vinegaard is polishing his Trofeo Senza Fine. Pogačar will be dynasty-building one week later in Suisse. Evenepoel is just training his ass off.

Instead, Isaac del Toro, Joao Almeida, and Juan Ayuso will be Seixas’ closest competition in the Rhônes-Alpes.

The Frenchman intends to torch them all.

For Seixas, winning a WorldTour race in his very own back yard would mean everything.

But for “Big Seixas” and his Decathlon entourage, the Dauphiné is more valuable as a benchmarking session.

The 19-year-old will return to altitude after the Dauphiné to smooth out any wrinkles and apply the finishing touches to his Pog-slaying form.

Pushing the limits of teen physiology – for all to see

Tour de France contenders typically keep their training efforts even more secret than their tire pressure – and they certainly don’t stick it all on Strava.

But Seixas is prime Gen-Z.

Pogačar and the Dhiram-slingers in Abu Dhabi who are trying to sign him must have bookmarked his Strava profile, because his workouts (albeit without power data) are all there to see.

One thing that’s clear from Seixas’ Strava feed?

The boy loves riding his bike.

He’s notorious for channeling all his teen energy into a super-high-volume regimen that would leave many frayed at the seams.

He famously finished his breakout 2025 season with a 320km, 12-hour training ride that totalled more than 8,000m of high Alpine climbing.

A few months later, Seixas laid the foundation for his phenomenal start to 2026 by spending two months away from his family and went full “monk mode” in a snowed-in winter training camp atop the Spanish Sierra.

Seixas rides his own grand tour in XL altitude camp

Seixas turned his training volume from 11 to 12 in his first of two pre-Tour de France training camps.

He accumulated around 48,000m of elevation gain into 63 hours of training in just 16 days last month.

That’s only a few meters shy of what Vingegaard just climbed in three weeks at the Giro d’Italia, but in 75 percent of the time.

At 1,900km, the total distance of the camp was way short of a typical grand tour (the Giro was around 3,500km, for example), but that makes Seixas’ climbing: distance ratio all the more devastating.

There were no days off the bike for the WorldTour sophomore – four 60-90 minute recovery rides were the most reprieve his saddle-weary backside was allowed.

Two of those easy days came after crushing seven-hour workouts designed to harden the edges ahead of Tour de France “queen stages” across the Vosges and the roof of the Alps.

Oh, and don’t forget the hours of strength training, mobility, and activations the baby-face Frenchman will have worked through in Sierra.

Seixas training camp and Tour de France recons

Seixas’ recent training camp was extreme, even by regular WorldTour standards.

By “regular” 19-year-old standards, it’s fully insane.

For comparison, Matteo Jorgenson rode 2,100km and climbed 52,000m across 21 days (78 hours of riding) in his camp last May with Visma-Lease a Bike.

Seixas did similar vert and distance as Jorgenson, but five days faster – and six years younger.

If there was ever a way for Seixas to be ready for by far the longest race of his career, he just put himself through it in Sierra Nevada.

The question on all our lips: Is that enough to beat four-time champion Pogačar and grand tour grand-slammer Vingegaard at their own game?

Too much too young?

Seixas blazed a trail through spring.

He became the first Frenchman to win a WorldTour stage race since 2007 when he dominated Itzulia Basque Country. He put more pressure on Pogačar at Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège than his elder rivals could muster.

Seixas has been so impressive that Decathlon CMA CGM could hardly not send him to the Tour de France for his very first grand tour.

It’s a strategy that contravenes one of the most ancient “rules” of cycling – don’t blood a grand tour rookie at the Tour de France. Especially not if they’re 19. Even more so when everyone in France will be praying you win the thing and end a painful 41-year drought.

Speaking recently to Velo’s Shane Stokes, Decathlon CMA-CGM head of performance Stephen Barrett batted away the chorus of concern about overtraining and burnout.

In the modern era of precision training and recovery, teams prescribe training based on ability and durability rather than age.

“We’re taking things at a good pace,” Barrett told Velo. “We don’t go too fast, we don’t go too slow. He’s capable of doing a lot of work, so we give him the work to do.

“We’re not too cautious, but at the same time we’re ensuring he makes steps in the best and the most effective way.”

Seixas’ Sierra Nevada bootcamp was designed to ensure age doesn’t matter when he goes chasing the yellow jersey on debut at Le Tour.

Some might say it’s too much, too young.

We’ll find out if they’re right in July when Seixas is climbing Alpe d’Huez, the final mountain of the Tour.