Paul Seixas has gone from promising talent to a full-blown phenom in a matter of months, and the hype around him is only getting louder.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old French rider is blowing up races, drawing comparisons to Tadej Poga\u010dar, and reigniting dreams of a homegrown Tour de France contender.<\/p>\n
No French rider has won the yellow jersey since Bernard Hinault in 1985. And while it remains to be seen whether Seixas will even start the Tour this summer, his meteoric rise is triggering a bidding war for his contract.<\/p>\n
Everything comes to a head Sunday in an epic clash between Poga\u010dar and Seixas at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n
There hasn\u2019t been a sensation like this taking over cycling since, well, Poga\u010dar. His stunning rise has electrified French cycling and turned the WorldTour peloton on its head.<\/p>\n
Here are nine reasons why everyone is talking about cycling\u2019s newest golden boy:<\/p>\n Seixas is no cycling version of a nepo baby. There\u2019s no Tour de France-winning relative in his lineage.<\/p>\n Born in Lyon in 2006, his parents were athletic, but into martial arts, not endurance sport. His father, Emmanuel, was a nationally ranked karate competitor.<\/p>\n While he is French through and through in his upbringing, one of his paternal great-grandfathers was Portuguese. Seixas \u2014 which rhymes with Texas \u2014 grew up watching cycling and remembers tuning into the Tour de France with his grandfather.<\/p>\n \u201cI pestered my parents to let me race bikes,\u201d Seixas told L\u2019Equipe, <\/em>adding that he told his his grandmother that someday she will be able to watch him because he dreamed of racing the Tour.<\/p>\n Like Poga\u010dar, whose parents had no notable athletic background either, Seixas appears blessed by the cycling gods.<\/p>\n Seixas started racing at eight with local club Lyon Sprint \u00c9volution, and French media report that he won across nearly every age category as he climbed the ranks.<\/p>\n In 2021, he stepped up to V\u00e9lo Club Villefranche Beaujolais, a more structured junior program, and won the U17 national road title. By 2023, he moved up to Decathlon\u2019s junior development squad.<\/p>\n In his final full season as a junior in 2024, he won Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge Juniors and claimed the junior world time trial title in Zurich, becoming the first French rider to win the category.<\/p>\n By then, everyone inside French racing was starting to take notice \u2014 a young, aggressive winner who can climb and time trial, hmmm<\/em>.<\/p>\n In 2025, Decathlon CMA CGM began easing him into select pro races, and he wasted no time making an impact. Last spring, he was second at Paris-Camembert, a punchy Ardennes-style classic, and second again on the final stage at the Tour of the Alps, both times part of long, aggressive breakaways.<\/p>\n What was bubbling among cycling\u2019s intelligentsia<\/em> went mainstream last summer after he finished eighth overall at the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 against a field stacked with Tour de France contenders.<\/p>\n Then came his stunning win at the Tour de l\u2019Avenir at just 18. He overturned a 29-second deficit on a climbing time trial to seize yellow on the final day.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when the first full-blown Poga\u010dar comparisons began to take root.<\/p>\n After he closed out the season with third at the European Championships road race and seventh at Il Lombardia, and \u201cSeixas Fever\u201d was taking over French cycling.<\/p>\n At 1.83m and 65kg, Seixas matches an old-school climber\u2019s build with off-the-charts aerobic capacity.<\/p>\n His power numbers are already world class. Though there are no official numbers, some estimates put his VO\u2082max at the low 90s, an exceptionally high figure by any historical standard.<\/p>\n According to Watts2Win<\/em> estimates, Seixas is already pushing more than 7.0 W\/kg for 20 minutes, with an FTP (Functional Threshold Power) more than 400 watts.<\/p>\n Velo\u2019s<\/em> Zach Nehr estimated that Seixas\u2019 average power at Strade Bianche was \u201c50w lower than Poga\u010dar\u2019s in the finale, Seixas likely had a NP (Normalized Power) close to 400w for two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n Those insane numbers put him at the very top of the international peloton.<\/p>\n Seixas is also proving he is not afraid to attack and knows when and where to move. Even Bernard Hinault \u2014 who\u2019s been criticizing French riders for decades \u2014 is impressed.<\/p>\n All across 2024 and 2025, Seixas was jumping into moves. This spring, he launched a solo attack with 40km to go to win at the Faun-Ard\u00e8che Classic.<\/p>\n To be able to do it this season against the elite WorldTour pros and deliver victory confirms that his class matches his racing instincts.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul is a breath of fresh air. He races on instinct, not fear. Where others calculate their efforts or wait for the safety of the final kilometer, he is already on the move. He has this rare ability to ignore the reputations of the riders around him and simply race his bike,\u201d said Decathlon sport director Cyril Dessel.<\/p>\n Seixas is not waiting around for a sprint. Sound like someone?<\/p>\n Seixas has already proven he can beat elite fields in his first full WorldTour season.<\/p>\n His first pro win came at Algarve in February and he followed that up by dominating Europe\u2019s hardest one-week stage race at Itzulia Basque Country, with three stage wins and the overall. That was France\u2019s first WorldTour-level stage race GC win in nearly 20 years<\/em>.<\/p>\n Winning La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne in his first crack up the Mur de Huy in near-record time only poured more fuel on the Seixas bonfire.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were not just riding for a result. It was serious business. Nothing like a top 5 or a podium, but win the race,\u201d teammate Stan Dewulf told Wielerflits<\/em>. \u201cYou still think, how is this possible? It was the first time racing here. He did the Mur de Huy three times during the race and once the day before during the course reconnaissance. Not many do that.\u201d<\/p>\n At 19, Seixas became the youngest winner of a WorldTour stage race at Itzulia, a full year younger than Poga\u010dar was when he won the 2019 Amgen Tour of California at age 20 (then a record as well).<\/p>\n Seixas is now the youngest winner in the history of La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne. With that, he\u2019s even bettering some of Poga\u010dar\u2019s early milestones.<\/p>\n All this could be too much for a 19-year-old, but Seixas is not letting the rapid success go to his head. Eerily like Poga\u010dar, he\u2019s calm and level-headed despite everyone losing their minds around him.<\/p>\n Seixas is already making front-page news in L\u2019Equipe<\/em>, and the hype will only build toward a possible Tour de France debut this summer.<\/p>\n Rivals are also seeing how Seixas crushes races just like Poga\u010dar does.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul rode like a boss and showed today that he\u2019s the strongest, hats off to him,\u201d said UAE\u2019s Benoit Cosnefroy at La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne. \u201cI thought it might not have been an effort he really enjoyed, but in reality, it\u2019s like Tadej, when you\u2019re physically strong, you can shine on all terrains.\u201d<\/p>\n If the growing circus wasn\u2019t enough, speculation is going into overdrive about his future.<\/p>\n Officially on contract through 2027, Seixas is at the center of massive speculation about a possible exit to a rival team.<\/p>\n Seixas now has cycling wealthiest super teams chasing his signature. With a rumored \u20ac8 million price tag, there are even whispers of political pressure from President Emmanuel Macron to keep him on a French team.<\/p>\n Sources indicate that UAE Emirates-XRG, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull\u2013Bora-Hansgrohe, and Ineos Grenadiers are putting out feelers.<\/p>\n \u201cHe keeps getting those questions, but I do not think he even knows yet what he wants,\u201d Dewulf told Wielerflits<\/em>. \u201cDon\u2019t forget that he pulls off a new impressive feat every week, and those performances change things quickly. I think he has become half a million more expensive almost every week.\u201d<\/p>\n UAE scooped up Poga\u010dar early. Now the big question is can Decathlon keep Seixas?<\/p>\n Seixas is already tracking along on a similar arc as Poga\u010dar and the pair will inevitably clash even more.<\/p>\n So far, many of their milestones have come at the same age, even if they\u2019re almost exactly eight years apart in age.<\/p>\n Seixas\u2019 power numbers are closing in on Poga\u010dar and the rise of the Frenchman comes just as the Slovenian looks at the peak of his powers.<\/p>\n No one\u2019s expecting Seixas to drop Poga\u010dar on Sunday, but some are wondering if Poga\u010dar might not be able to drop Seixas.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a great champion, like Tadej Poga\u010dar and Remco Evenepoel, riders who can win both stage races and one day races,\u201d said Decathlon sport director Julien Jurdie. \u201cThe future is bright for him, but Paul does everything so naturally. I have been a directeur sportif<\/em> for 25 years, and this is the best rider I have ever worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n Can Seixas follow the Pogi pathway all the way to Paris? Poga\u010dar won the Tour de France in 2020 in his debut, just two years after winning Avenir.<\/p>\n By that logic, Seixas could be in line for the yellow jersey in his Tour debut in 2027.<\/p>\n That is, if he doesn\u2019t race the Tour this summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/paul-seixas-next-pogacar-tour-de-france\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/horizontasexias.jpg”] Andrew Hood Published April 24, 2026 08:09AM Paul Seixas has gone from promising talent to a full-blown phenom in a matter of months, and the hype around him is only getting louder. The 19-year-old French rider is blowing up races, drawing comparisons to Tadej Poga\u010dar, and reigniting dreams of a homegrown Tour […]<\/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-1900607","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\/1900607","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=1900607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1900607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1900607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1900607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Seixas\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8D_7819-2-720x475.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
1. He didn\u2019t come from cycling royalty<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. He was winning almost immediately<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. His breakout came fast and hard<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Seixas\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8D_7950-2-720x601.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
4. His physiology is insane<\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. He races on instinct, not fear<\/strong><\/h2>\n
6. He\u2019s already crushing WorldTour races<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Seixas\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8A_2174-720x505.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
7. Mature beyond his years<\/strong><\/h2>\n
8. Every big team wants to sign him<\/strong><\/h2>\n
9. The Poga\u010dar comparison is real<\/h2>\n