{"id":455578,"date":"2026-02-03T11:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455578\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:20:09","slug":"is-paul-seixas-the-best-18-year-old-weve-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/455578\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Paul Seixas the best 18-year-old we\u2019ve ever seen?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nOne name that dominated much of the conversation was Paul Seixas<\/a>. Johan Bruyneel<\/a> didn\u2019t hesitate to frame the debate in historical terms: \u201cIs Paul Seixas the best 18-year-old we\u2019ve ever seen? I\u2019d say probably yes.\u201d It\u2019s no small claim given modern cycling\u2019s evolution, where riders that age could barely race professionals until recently. For Bruyneel, Seixas embodies the paradigm shift sparked by riders like Remco Evenepoel: \u201cRemco was a bit of a pioneer who changed that, turning pro at 18 or 19.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the numbers, Bruyneel highlighted how naturally Seixas operates at the highest level: \u201cHe\u2019s the real deal, the true talent.\u201d He recalled rides like his Dauphin\u00e9, flirting with the top ten, and his composure in stage races, where he even yielded a win to a teammate with the long game in mind (the 2025 Tour of the Alps where he helped Nicolas Prodhomme to his first pro win instead of taking it himself). For the Belgian, that gesture also defines the rider: \u201cHe said he\u2019d have many more opportunities. That mentality says a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another fixture in the discussion was Matthew Brennan. Spencer Martin was struck by his rise: \u201cI think he was the rider who surprised me most last year. He won 12 professional races, which is crazy.\u201d Bruyneel agreed and added the trajectory hasn\u2019t stalled: \u201cThis year, in the little we\u2019ve seen, he looks even better than last year. He\u2019s clearly improving.\u201d For both, Brennan typifies the modern rider: young, versatile, and ready to win immediately.<\/p>\n

The roster of confirmed talents extends to profiles like Tibor Del Grosso, who balances cyclocross and road. Bruyneel underlined his World Tour adaptation: \u201cI remember his rides at the Volta a Catalunya, a World Tour race, and you could already see it.\u201d His runner-up at the elite Cyclocross Worlds, while still eligible for under-23, reinforces the ceiling of a very high-upside rider.<\/p>\n

Looking toward more speculative bets on the future, Johan Bruyneel<\/a>\u2019s first pick was Jakob Omrzel, a 19-year-old Slovenian. His reasoning was blunt and clear: \u201cHe\u2019s tall, very lean, but with a huge engine. He was fourth at the Tour of Slovenia with the pros as a kid.\u201d The national context matters too, with Slovenia a hotbed of precocious talent over the past decade.Spencer Martin, for his part, singled out Lorenzo Finn<\/a> as his big bet. He stressed one decisive data point: \u201cHe won the junior Worlds and the next year the under-23 Worlds. Doing that at 18 against riders nearly 23 is a massive physical gap.\u201d For Martin, that competitive leap is the unmistakable mark of a future champion.Adri\u00e0 Pericas and H\u00e9ctor \u00c1lvarezThe analysis also paused on young climbers like Adri\u00e0 Pericas<\/a>. Bruyneel praised his tactical boldness and willingness to test himself against the best. At the recent Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana, the under-23 UAE rider was in the breakaway and then looked to be the best rider following Evenepoel when the Belgian attacked from the peloton to victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe dared to follow Remco all the way up the climb. Getting dropped on the descent is another story, but it shows how good the big names are.\u201d Those experiences, they argued, are essential to the accelerated learning curve these riders face.<\/p>\n

Another standout was H\u00e9ctor \u00c1lvarez, with an unusual body type for a pure climber. Bruyneel was blunt: \u201cIf at that size you\u2019re fourth at a Worlds and third at a Europeans on courses that hard, you\u2019ve got a huge engine.\u201d His second place at the Trofeo Calvia, matching Ant\u00f3nio Morgado on the day’s climbs<\/a>, reinforced his strong status not only as a developing rider but as an established top performer already.\"Adri\u00e0<\/p>\n

Adri\u00e0 Pericas, Spanish rider for UAE Team Emirates<\/p>\n

Beyond the names, the deeper question was this: is it good to be that good that young? Bruyneel offered a reflection that summed up the podcast\u2019s view: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be just the best 18-year-old in history. You want to keep improving and maybe be the best rider in history.\u201d The Pogacar reference is inevitable, an example of someone who kept progressing despite reaching the elite very early.<\/p>\n

Spencer Martin closed on the need for patience and constant evolution: \u201cThe key is improvement. All these guys are fantastic, but if they want to win big races they have to keep growing.\u201d In a sport where precocity is no longer the exception, the real challenge for these future stars will be sustaining development and turning early talent into a long, successful career.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One name that dominated much of the conversation was Paul Seixas. Johan Bruyneel didn\u2019t hesitate to frame…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[234892,64,63,784,234893,172758,198122,176605,85],"class_list":["post-455578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-adria-pericas","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-hector-alvarez","tag-johan-bruyneel","tag-lorenzo-finn","tag-paul-seixas","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}