{"id":1904966,"date":"2026-04-27T05:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1904966"},"modified":"2026-04-27T05:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:37:28","slug":"seixas-pushes-pogacar-deeper-but-cant-break-him-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1904966","title":{"rendered":"Seixas Pushes Poga\u010dar Deeper \u2014 But Can\u2019t Break Him Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tadej Poga\u010dar won Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. That part didn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n
What did change Sunday was how deep Poga\u010dar had to go to win.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old French phenom Paul Seixas went toe to toe with Poga\u010dar and never flinched.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. I really wanted to give everything to fight for the win,\u201d Seixas said. \u201cEven if Tadej was stronger, I wasn\u2019t far off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike at Strade Bianche in March, where he lost contact at the first real acceleration, Seixas held Poga\u010dar\u2019s wheel on La Redoute, Pogi\u2019s traditional launchpad.<\/p>\n
And for once in a hilly monument in quite awhile, Poga\u010dar looked back, and saw someone still there.<\/p>\n
Seixas finally succumbed on Roche-aux-Faucons, losing contact at 15km to go as Poga\u010dar soloed home to a third monument win this spring.<\/p>\n
King Pogi still rules, but the peloton sees a new, impatient prince-in-waiting with the motor to prove it.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNo, I wasn\u2019t surprised. I was impressed and amazed to see how good he is,\u201d Poga\u010dar said of Seixas. \u201cHats off to Paul. He rode a fantastic race. For me, it was one of the toughest Redoute races I\u2019ve done so far. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a stronger rider than him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The takeaway was clear: Seixas is eight years younger than Poga\u010dar, and represents the first real threat from a new wave of talent.<\/p>\n
Seixas delivers on hype<\/h2>\nSeixas delivered on the hype on Sunday. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The hype was in overdrive coming into La Doyenne, and it didn\u2019t faze Seixas.<\/p>\n
Insiders say he\u2019s preternaturally calm for a 19-year-old, and he proved again Sunday that he\u2019s a pure racer. Anything less would have been a major letdown for newly inspired French fans.<\/p>\n
Despite pre-race suggestions from Remco Evenepoel that Seixas might be in for a shock in the near-six-hour distance, Decathlon CMA CGM positioned him perfectly for the decisive stampede up La Redoute.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Strade Bianche, I wasn\u2019t able to follow his first attack,\u201d Seixas said. \u201cTo be able to hang on today, that\u2019s already huge. There\u2019s still a lot of work to do. There are steps to take.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy vision was blurry. I was absolutely exhausted on La Redoute. The speed we were going was mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n
French media swarmed him after the race. Barely into his first full season in the WorldTour, he\u2019s already at the center of a media firestorm.<\/p>\n
And to beat Poga\u010dar mano-a-mano?<\/p>\n
\u201cPower, that seems obvious. But it\u2019s about progress,\u201d Seixas said. \u201cYou can see the level he\u2019s at. It\u2019s already extremely difficult to keep up with him. To be able to hang on all the way to Roche-aux-Faucons, that\u2019s already a big step.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I\u2019ve finished second, my next ambition will be to win a monument,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be ambitious in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar has already beaten down one wave of riders, first with Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d and then Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and Evenepoel of today\u2019s golden generation.<\/p>\n
A new rival could be just what Poga\u010dar needs to keep things fresh.<\/p>\n
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Poga\u010dar is impressed \u2014 and pushed<\/h2>\nPoga\u010dar won Sunday but found some surprising company. <\/span> (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Before anyone gets carried away, Poga\u010dar still won the race all alone in the photo.<\/p>\n
He delivered. He always does. His win ratio over the past 48 months is beyond Merckxian.<\/p>\n
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What was different about Sunday is that Seixas is rising just as Poga\u010dar hits his peak.<\/p>\n
Seixas\u2019 arrival comes at an interesting moment for the Slovenian, who is already facing questions about fatigue, burnout, and a shrinking list of milestones left to conquer.<\/p>\n
Poga\u010dar even admitted he was thinking the race could have come down to a sprint after Seixas was hanging tough so deep Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing Paul at such a high level at 19 motivates everyone to keep improving. He\u2019s 19, and normally your body is at its best between 26 and 29-30,\u201d Poga\u010dar said. \u201cI\u2019m not getting any younger. We\u2019re going to keep working hard, fighting in the coming years to win as much as possible until he destroys everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two shared words at the finish, with Poga\u010dar waiting at the line to congratulate him \u2014 not to pass on the baton.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe both said it was a very tough day,\u201d Seixas said. \u201cHe was glad to know it had hurt me because it had hurt him too.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 27, Poga\u010dar is zeroing in on perfection, with four wins in five starts in 2026. Only a touched-by-God Van Aert denied him at Paris-Roubaix.<\/p>\n
Arguably the greatest of all time is finally facing a next-generation rival putting a clear target on his back.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just the kind of spice the sport needs to quiet a grumbling chorus that Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance is somehow boring for the sport.<\/p>\n
And with buzz around the Tour de France growing by the day, Seixas shifted from a promising rider to a real-time challenger capable of pushing the world No. 1 \u2014 and dropping everyone else<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/horizonPOG2.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated April 27, 2026 06:06AM Tadej Poga\u010dar won Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. That part didn\u2019t change. What did change Sunday was how deep Poga\u010dar had to go to win. The 19-year-old French phenom Paul Seixas went toe to toe with Poga\u010dar and never flinched. \u201cIt was my first Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. I really wanted to […]<\/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-1904966","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\/1904966","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=1904966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1904966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1904966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1904966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Seixas](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8D_7409-720x477.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Poga\u010dar](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Z8A_1070-720x529.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")