{"id":1788845,"date":"2026-02-23T05:26:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T02:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1788845"},"modified":"2026-02-23T05:26:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T02:26:29","slug":"pogacar-still-reigns-but-seixas-and-del-toro-ignite-the-battle-for-his-throne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1788845","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Still Reigns but Seixas and Del Toro Ignite the Battle for His Throne"},"content":{"rendered":"
Updated February 23, 2026 07:35AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The weekend\u2019s big takeaway is that Paul Seixas, Juan Ayuso, and Isaac del Toro are not going to be content to wait for the Tadej Poga\u010dar retirement party.<\/p>\n
Layer in Iv\u00e1n Romeo, Oscar Onley, and Matthew Riccitello, and things are heating up in the seething and restless in cycling\u2019s 23-and-under crowd.<\/p>\n
It is way too early to say any of them are ready to topple the established duopoly of Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard, but look down the road, and the rumbling could reach a full boil faster than anyone could guess.<\/p>\n
This weekend\u2019s GC season preview from the Algarve to Spain to the UAE confirm that no one\u2019s going to be happy waiting their turn.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s elite pro cycling sits in a rare era. Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard have split the last six Tours de France between them, and Poga\u010dar is recasting the so-called Big 4 era into something closer to a one-man demolition derby.<\/p>\n
The hierarchy at the top looks set in stone, but no one\u2019s taking it sitting down.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s a fresh sense of urgency and ambition pulsating out of Lidl-Trek, Decathlon CMA CGM, a revived Ineos Grenadiers, and a wounded but still dangerous Visma-Lease a Bike that will play out across 2026.<\/p>\n
The current guard should control the grand tours in the near term, but racing rarely follows a straight line.<\/p>\n
For the first time this decade, we\u2019re seeing real glimpses of a new generation of riders who could take it straight to Poga\u010dar. Let\u2019s dive in:<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar isn\u2019t going anywhere<\/h2>\nPoga\u010dar is zeroing in on unfinished business in 2026.<\/span> (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
First off, Poga\u010dar is far from his past-due date.<\/p>\n
Despite the chatter of burnout or even boredom last season, a condensed calendar for 2026 \u2014 with the monument sweep, a record-tying fifth Tour crown, and a third world title all on the line this season \u2014 will keep him fresh and motivated.<\/p>\n
At 27, he\u2019s hitting full Pogi peak powers. Even if his upside margin for improvement is nearing its ceiling, he\u2019s far from being vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, Poga\u010dar will continue to crush souls for years to come.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI believe that Tadej has many more years left, and very good ones. His age is helping him progress in every aspect,\u201d Joxean Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin told Marca<\/em>. \u201cThat maturity and experience he gains each year make him better, help him understand himself better, train better, and pace himself better. From my point of view, this year he\u2019s going to progress even further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backed by the super team UAE Emirates-XRG, there\u2019s a huge wall of defense to defend Pogacar\u2019s crown for as long as he wants it.<\/p>\n
Beating him outright in the short term borders on fantasy. Any lapse would require an extraordinary Vingegaard coupled with an injury or other out-of-character slump from Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n
Everyone knows that to get close to Poga\u010dar, they need to blow past Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s happening in the peloton right now is the mad scramble to find the next rider who can eventually inherit the throne. Or be there to pounce if there\u2019s a wobble that opens up the Tour.<\/p>\n
That narrative will drive grand tour racing for the next several years.<\/p>\n
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Isaac del Toro: The heir and the threat<\/h2>\nDel Toro is the most exciting rider since, well, Poga\u010dar. <\/span> (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Everyone already knows the 22-year-old from Baja California is the peloton\u2019s next big thing.<\/p>\n
He won Mexico\u2019s first WorldTour race Sunday at the UAE Tour, crushing Evenepoel and toppling Antonio Tiberi to keep the trophy in-house for title sponsors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsaac is a great champion,\u201d Tiberi said. \u201cHe could become even bigger than Tadej. We all saw what he did last year at the Giro d\u2019Italia, which he almost won. He\u2019s still super young and a real champion, so chapeau to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Del Toro\u2019s momentum makes him the best among cycling\u2019s new wave.<\/p>\n
He nearly won \u2014 should have won<\/em> \u2014 the Giro last year. For 2026, he\u2019ll make his Tour debut alongside King Pog.<\/p>\n
Pogi\u2019s most imminent threat to his throne will be right by his side, and that could set up some interesting palace intrigue.<\/p>\n
Or will it?<\/p>\n
Del Toro so far has shown none of the ego or over-ambition that would suggest any sort of dissent within the realm, and he seems smart enough to know that riding with Poga\u010dar is far better than racing against him.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easier to imagine a scenario where Poga\u010dar and Del Toro team up to dispatch Vingegaard and everyone else in the French Alps in week 3, go hand-in-hand to the line at Alpe d\u2019Huez, with the Mexican finishing second in Paris to the King.<\/p>\n
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The balancing act for the UAE brass will be keeping Del Toro happy enough \u2014 his huge long-term contract will help \u2014 until Poga\u010dar decides to ride off into the sunset.<\/p>\n
Under contract through 2030, Poga\u010dar isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n
To keep Del Toro happy, perhaps Poga\u010dar will skip the Tour one year to do the Giro-Vuelta double \u2014 rounding out the grand tour sweep \u2014 and give Del Toro his spot in the sun, and return to win another yellow.<\/p>\n
He could even sit out a year and pull off cycling\u2019s version of a Michael Jordan comeback. Why not?<\/p>\n
Some believe Poga\u010dar wants to equal and even better Lance Armstrong\u2019s unofficial and tainted seven-win record, so that scenario could be a reach.<\/p>\n
Would El Torito<\/em> directly attack Pogi at the Tour? Probably not.<\/p>\n
A more likely scenario would be Del Toro getting into a big break or Pogi getting tangled up in some mess, a similar scenario to how Del Toro wound up in pink at last year\u2019s Giro. Then things would get spicy real fast.<\/p>\n
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Paul Seixas: French prince in waiting<\/h2>\nAt 19, Seixas is growing accustomed to the media spotlight. <\/span> (Photo: Thomas COEX \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
If Del Toro is already established as the prince in waiting, French sensation Seixas is the mistral<\/em> brewing on the horizon.<\/p>\n
At just 19, he confirmed this weekend that he\u2019s the real deal with his first pro win.<\/p>\n
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His victory on the Foi\u00e0 climb came on the same asphalt where Poga\u010dar won his first pro race in 2019. The symbolism was not lost on the French press, which immediately turned up the volume.<\/p>\n
More intriguing about Seixas that truly sets him apart from every Bernard Hinault wanna-be is that he can time trial. Unlike Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, or David Gaudu, Seixas has the chops against the clock, and in grand tour racing, that\u2019s a non-negotiable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw it already last year, especially in the Europeans and at the end of the season that he is going to be also one of the greats,\u201d said Algarve winner Ayuso. \u201cI said it before the race, I think he was going to be one of the main rivals. He just showed it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a growing chorus in France that Decathlon should send Seixas to the Tour. Why wait?<\/p>\n
Send him now, no pressure, learn the race, and then within two to three years, he can be ready to race to win.<\/p>\n
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More likely, the team will pack him off to the Vuelta on a climber-friendly course for a low-pressure grand tour debut. At 19, there\u2019s no need to throw him into the cauldron so soon.<\/p>\n
Everyone agrees that there\u2019s something special in Seixas that extends beyond the post-Hinault hype and hope that\u2019s buried every generation since.<\/p>\n
France may finally have a legitimate, modern Tour contender.<\/p>\n
Keeping him healthy, motivated, and injury-free is critical in the next phase for this diamond-in-the-rough.<\/p>\n
If he\u2019s as good as some say he is, the results will continue to shine.<\/p>\n
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Onley, Ayuso: Unbridled ambition<\/h2>\nAyuso silenced the critics with a big season debut win. <\/span> (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
This weekend also delivered early returns on two of the transfer market\u2019s biggest wagers.<\/p>\n
Ayuso answered with a stage and the overall at Europe\u2019s first real GC throwdown at Algarve, out-dueling Seixas and established podium man Jo\u00e3o Almeida in a win that electrified the Lidl-Trek organization.<\/p>\n
The now German-backed squad went all in on Ayuso as a long-term Poga\u010dar disruptor, and though he\u2019s battled his own windmills under the yoke at UAE, a liberated Ayuso might emerge as a legitimate podium contender this summer.<\/p>\n
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Like Evenepoel, he\u2019s wildly inconsistent in the high mountains. Also like the Belgian, his strong TT makes him a natural for three-week grand tours if he can level out the peaks and valleys.<\/p>\n
Ineos Grenadiers also reconfirmed the aggressive new tilt it\u2019s shown so far in 2026, and Onley just missed the podium. Two solid climbing stages and a decent fourth overall, with Frnech signing K\u00e9vin Vauquelin fifth, are solid returns on the UK team\u2019s big transfer moves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly why I wanted to join this team, to play like this in these kinds of races,\u201d Onley told reporters Sunday. \u201cMaybe we don\u2019t have the strongest guy outright, but together with our strengths, we can make things happen. There\u2019s definitely some room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florian Lipowitz rode quietly in the Algarve and is expected to build toward later targets.<\/p>\n
Almeida remains one of the most bankable grand tour podium threats in the peloton and feels destined to convert one into a victory sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
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Tom Pidcock, fresh off a stage win at the Ruta del Sol, is sharpening his bid to crack the Tour de France top five this summer.<\/p>\n
Cycling\u2019s never seen so much talent bubbling just below the surface. Who will be the rider to topple the Poga\u010dar reign?<\/p>\n
Even more depth in the wings<\/h2>\nRiccitello, shown here in December, is quickly settling in. <\/span> (Photo: P. Ballet-A. Broadway\/Decathlon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Poga\u010dar and Evenepoel broke the mould when both became teenage sensations. Cycling is no longer built on waiting your turn or team-mandate hierarchies.<\/p>\n
Modern racing runs on data. If the numbers justify it, age is irrelevant. Riders get their chance.<\/p>\n
Teams are pouring millions into talent identification pipelines. One sport director told Velo<\/em>, \u201cBefore I never even checked the U23 results until words, now I am looking at junior results all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n
UAE\u2019s Fern\u00e1ndez Matxin is famously obsessed with tracking the stars of tomorrow in the depths of the junior and espoirs ranks. Visma-Lease a Bike has spent millions on its development team, though it\u2019s yet to produce the Vingegaard heir it desperately needs.<\/p>\n
Red Bull recently confirmed two full-time talent scouts.<\/p>\n
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Who else is already coming up?<\/p>\n
Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull development squad), Jarno Widar (Lotto Intermarch\u00e9), and J\u00f8rgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) are generating buzz.<\/p>\n
In Spain, Pablo Torres (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Movistar\u2019s Iv\u00e1n Romeo, fresh off a stage win and overall triumph at the Ruta del Sol, headline a long-awaited revival. No Spanish rider has won a grand tour since Alberto Contador at the 2015 Giro.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the bike, above all in the time trial, he reminds me of Miguel [Indurain] because both took care of the little details,\u201d Eusebio Unzu\u00e9 told AS<\/em>. \u201cThey are similar in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riccitello, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Derek Gee (Lidl-Trek) still have room to progress before hitting their respective peaks among North Americans. Enzo Hincapie, racing on Red Bull\u2019s official U19 junior development team, and Ashlin Barry, on Visma\u2019s development team, are both promising U.S. juniors.<\/p>\n
Every rider has their own respective trajectory. Some take a few years to truly excel, but in today\u2019s cycling, everything is accelerated.<\/p>\n
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Is there a proven Pog-slayer hidden in today\u2019s treasure trove? That\u2019s not clear just yet.<\/p>\n
The Poga\u010dar hierarchy seems set for the next years \u2014 barring disaster \u2014 but there are more teams with deeper pockets and restless ambitions than ever.<\/p>\n
The pressure will continue to build. Something is bound to snap.<\/p>\n
That tension will keep things interesting even if Poga\u010dar keeps on winning.<\/p>\n
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Evenepoel odd man out?<\/h2>\nEvenepoel was cooked in the desert at the UAE Tour. (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Now 29, Vingegaard has the bad luck of coinciding with the Poga\u010dar era.<\/p>\n
Vingo deserves more credit than he sometimes gets and has never finished worse in any grand tour since his Vuelta debut with 46th in 2020.<\/p>\n
Even if he never adds another yellow jersey to his trophy case, he remains one of the defining grand tour riders in modern cycling. Vingegaard seems stuck behind Poga\u010dar but is still miles ahead of everyone else.<\/p>\n
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The Dane has won two yellow jerseys and one Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, and he\u2019s putting the Giro d\u2019Italia in his sights this season to complete the grand tour sweep. Smart move, all things considered.<\/p>\n
The odd man out in the current power struggle could be Evenepoel.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel\u2019s hot-then-cold start to 2026 in his high-profile debut at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe reconfirms what many view as the Belgian\u2019s Achilles heel.<\/p>\n
Though he\u2019s a world-class time trialist and one-day racer, inconsistency across three weeks could keep him from truly taking it straight to Pogi or Vingo in the next few years.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s only about 18 months younger than Poga\u010dar, and Vingegaard isn\u2019t going anywhere else either.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel was looking for answers this weekend after bleeding time in both decisive uphill finishes at the UAE Tour. He came to UAE to blow everyone out of the water and confirm his ascendancy.<\/p>\n
Instead, he was beaten by Del Toro and barely hit the top 10.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI always come to win and to fight for the overall. I didn\u2019t have that level this week,\u201d Evenepoel said from UAE. \u201cThe values were there, but I still lost a minute. So the race is getting faster and faster. It was not my best week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, February isn\u2019t July, but if his rivals are already flying, and Poga\u010dar and Vingegaard aren\u2019t even racing yet, what does this say about Evenepoel\u2019s spot in the hierarchy?<\/p>\n
The aero bullet\u2019s done an extraordinary job at squeezing out the maximum from his engine, and his move to Red Bull should result in some incremental gains.<\/p>\n
He believes a Tour win is within reach. To get there, he may need to worry not only about the giants in front of him, but the storm building behind.<\/p>\n
With everyone else bucking for the third, Evenepoel looks to be the rider with the biggest target on his back this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Updated February 23, 2026 07:35AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/newguardhoritzonal.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated February 23, 2026 07:35AM The weekend\u2019s big takeaway is that Paul Seixas, Juan Ayuso, and Isaac del Toro are not going to be content to wait for the Tadej Poga\u010dar retirement party. Layer in Iv\u00e1n Romeo, Oscar Onley, and Matthew Riccitello, and things are heating up in the seething […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1788845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1788845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1788845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1788845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1788845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Pogacar\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Z8A_3073-720x469.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Stage](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2262796311-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2259567920-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Ayuso](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2262668282-scaled-e1771606323805-720x558.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Riccitello](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Training-camp-December_098_%C2%A9P.Ballet-A.Broadway-2025-12-13-P.Ballet-A.Broadway-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Remco](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2262285962-1-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")