Insatiable Seixas Beats Back Lipowitz in Itzulia to Close in on Historic GC Victory

Paul Seixas was made to do it the hard way Friday but didn’t falter in dispatching Florian Lipowitz for his third win in five days at Itzulia Basque Country.

The teen prodigy was relentless through the back-half of Friday’s heinous multi-mountain stage and was rewarded with a sprint victory that puts him on the brink of history.

Only one short hilly stage on Saturday stands in Seixas’ way of becoming the first French rider to win a WorldTour-level stage race since 2007.

Not bad for a 19-year-old.

Seixas has been insatiable all week in the grippy Basque steeps.

He attacked uphill, downhill, and on the flat, and was rarely troubled by a GC field decimated by crashes and illness. Pre-race favorites Isaac del Toro and Juan Ayuso both took the exit door ahead of time.

Seixas pushed to the limit but delivers hat-trick victory

Seixas now has a 2:30 GC lead over closest rival Lipowitz.

A marquee first major stage-race victory is his to lose.

But after two huge stage wins earlier in the week, it wasn’t so easy for Seixas in a vert-packed stage Friday.

“That was a hard stage,” he said at the finish. “I said this morning that I wanted to maybe win it, and today the boys did a great job to control all day long.”

Lipowitz resisted when the prodigal teen piled on the pressure on the penultimate climb of the day.

The German hung to the wheel on the brutal Cat.1 slope while Seixas burned the rest of the peloton out of the wheel.

Lipowitz clung to the Siex-press through much of the final 30km while his young rival continued to hammer bloody-minded on the front.

The two began to relay in the final 10km to keep away the chasers, but Lipowitz was on borrowed time.

Seixas kicked from second wheel in central Eibar to squeak his rival in the 2-up sprint.

“I tried to go all-out in the climb, but I was struggling,” Seixas said in his winner’s interview.

“I don’t know why, but I had the feeling that I couldn’t go all-in. It was a hard stage today,” he said. “Then I felt the legs coming back … Today was a close battle.”

A showdown with Pogačar in Liège is calling Seixas

Seixas hasn’t won the Basque tour yet, but thoughts inevitably turn to his potential for the future.

In the short term, he’s slated for a showdown with Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel later this month at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

His victory wasn’t so convincing Friday, but it’s not totally out of the question that the 19-year-old pulls a huge upset in his very first appearance at La Doyenne. Dozens of column inches across the European media are already ruminating on how it could happen.

It would be a very Pogi-eque thing to do, after all.

Later down the line, Seixas’ summer schedule is currently blank.

Decathlon CMA CGM will struggle to resist sending him to the Tour de France. It’s been 41 years and counting since the maillot jaune owned a French passport.

A nation expects.

Results: Itzulia Basque Country stage 5