One of them, 19-year-old Paul Seixas, is unnervingly similar in many ways to the four-time Tour de France<\/a> champion \u2013 and recently took his own maiden pro victory on the very same Alto da Foia, before soloing away Pogacar-style to a dominant win at Faun Ardeche.<\/p>\n And in years to come the teenager from Lyon will be able to call on a similar financial might to the super-teams, as his Decathlon CMA CGM squad bid to become a top-three team in the next three seasons, having dispensed with long-time sponsor AG2R La Mondiale. <\/p>\n Last year\u2019s European bronze medallist, Seixas is one of the most exciting talents in a sport which all too frequently churns through brilliant young things and discards them when they fail to live up to expectations. French cycling abounds with such cautionary tales, most recently with the permanently unlucky Thibaut Pinot and yesterday\u2019s hopeful, David Gaudu. <\/p>\n But if Seixas can keep his feet on the ground \u2013 perhaps not the best metaphor for a man whose best attribute is pedalling up into the clouds \u2013 he may yet end a French Tour de France drought going back decades, and challenge the indomitable Pogacar. <\/p>\n Potentially starting at Strade Bianche. The sweeping white roads of sterrato \u2013 gravel \u2013 of the Tuscan hills play host to one of the most romantic races on the cycling calendar, not quite a Monument but almost monumental in its grip on the sporting imagination. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Pogacar crashed last year but still powered back to win (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Three of the last four editions have been won by Pogacar, both times soloing away into the distance, disappearing in a plume of white smoke, and striding up the punishing Via Santa Caterina to glory in Siena\u2019s honey-coloured city centre. <\/p>\n But there is positive news for the challengers. This year\u2019s parcours is slightly shorter, at 203km, and features 18km less gravel than last year, in a bid to open up the race slightly and avoid yet another Pogacar procession. <\/p>\n And he is not infallible: last year he made a rare mistake on the sterrato,<\/a> put under pressure by Britain\u2019s Tom Pidcock<\/a> on a descent, and slid out. Pidcock \u2013 the champion in 2023 \u2013 waited for the blooded and bruised Slovenian but may have regretted the sportsmanlike gesture as he ultimately finished second, nearly a minute and a half behind Pogacar. <\/p>\n But the 26-year-old is at his best in Classics like Strade Bianche and remains a serious threat this weekend, even after a disappointing 48th-place finish in last week\u2019s curtain-raiser, Omloop Nieuwsblad. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n French teenager Seixas beat Pogacar’s former teammate Ayuso to the line on stage two of the Volta ao Algarve (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n The Briton is the undisputed core of Pinarello Q36.5, the second-tier outfit pushing to disrupt the hegemony of big-budget squads like Pogacar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates-XRG. <\/p>\n What they lack in resources they make up for in ambition and fighting talk: Pidcock\u2019s coach Kurt Bogaerts told Dutch outlet Wielerflits this is \u201cone of the races that [Pidcock] gets out of bed for\u201d, and added: \u201cTom has a good sense of his capabilities, and then it’s a matter of waiting to see how the opposition reacts. We’re going to try to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n This is Pogacar\u2019s first outing of the season and his form is unknown. While it\u2019s unlikely he\u2019ll have an off-day, the rest of the peloton can still dream of glory in Tuscany, with the season wide open before them. <\/p>\n Strade Bianche is a race for the Classics specialists, but also the mavericks. Swashbuckling Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe may be in the mix; at the very least he will put in a romantic, possibly doomed attack. Wout van Aert will be there too, but on the basis of his crash-ridden, disrupted winter and season so far, it will be disappointment again for the Belgian star. <\/p>\n Puncheur Ben Healy \u2013 another born racer \u2013 is a major contender after a stellar 2024, in which he wore the yellow jersey, won a stage of the Tour de France, and came third in the World Championships. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Pogacar has not raced since winning his fifth Il Lombardia title in October (AP)<\/p>\n A race like Strade Bianche suits the Irishman\u2019s unpredictability, as it does moustachioed cowboy Quinn Simmons. The American is another capable of keeping pace with Pogacar on difficult Classics terrain, most recently at Il Lombardia last October, and if he takes to the start line with his hair flowing in the breeze \u2013 indicative of an impending attack \u2013 he could be a major threat too.<\/p>\n Seixas may have company in the young super-talent category, in the form of Pogacar\u2019s teammate Isaac del Toro who on any given day can shine too. Here it is likely to be in the Slovenian\u2019s shadows, as he is expected to serve as the springboard for a race-winning attack, but he has outsmarted and outmuscled teammates before, notably Juan Ayuso at last year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a>. <\/p>\n All this may be wishful thinking, but even if it takes years to arise, the results of this spring may well set in motion the beginnings of a new era in cycling. <\/p>\n The decision of organisers RCS to make the parcours easier compared to some in previous years could reverse the trend of the past decade towards tougher and tougher racing, with inevitable results. <\/p>\n And even if brutally hilly courses are here to stay, the likes of Seixas are not content to let Pogacar run amok. Instead the talented teenager plans on taking the fight to him, come what may \u2013 and that may be just the shake-up cycling needs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-524619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524619","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=524619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Pogacar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Tadej-Pogacar-y3s5a8n5.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"French](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SEI285862317.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pogacar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Italy-Cycling-Lombardia-x7prlqoy.jpeg\")
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