![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2296271939.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPaul Seixas smashed expectations with bronze in Sunday\u2019s TT, adding to speculation he can win road worlds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paul Seixas on the way to third in the elite worlds TT on Sunday (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images) (Photo: @DarioBelingheri\/@GettyImages)<\/p>\n
Updated September 20, 2026 05:02PM<\/p>\n
Paul Seixas<\/a> may not have won the time trial at the road world championships<\/a> on Saturday, but he did himself a lot of favors in terms of the perception of him as a future Tour winner.<\/p>\n Still just 19 years of age, he outperformed many TT specialists to secure the bronze medal. He finished 1:13 behind the winner Remco Evenepoel<\/a> and just 16 seconds off the silver medal of Filippo Ganna<\/a> (Italy).<\/p>\n To put his performance into full context, he was a distant 16th in last year\u2019s worlds TT, four minutes and 14 seconds behind Evenepoel.<\/p>\n Going three minutes quicker this time around shows how much he has progressed in 12 months.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really happy with this podium, of course,\u201d the Frenchman said at the finish, speaking to Cycling Pro Net.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was quite close and I did a time trial that was almost perfect for me in terms of management. I think the feelings were right. I felt good, strong physically, and we managed the timing well with the team, and they put me in the best position to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy with the work of both my coach and the French team and also my team who always supports me. That\u2019s great. Now I\u2019m happy to bring back this beautiful medal.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it also gives confidence for the time trial to the younger categories.\u201d<\/p>\n A future world champion? Seixas has the reputation of being a climber. He\u2019s certainly built that way, and most of his big performances in the past have come in the hills and mountains.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also far less aerodynamic than a rider such as Evenepoel, sitting rather upright on the TT bike and not looking as streamlined as many of the TT specialists.<\/p>\n However his horsepower is such that such considerations can be overcome.<\/p>\n Given where he finished last year and how much his level has risen, winning the rainbow jersey in this disciple doesn\u2019t seem out of the question at all.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t disagree with that but, for now, he wants to savor what he has done rather than think too far ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the long term, maybe I could aim for first place one day, but for now it\u2019s still far off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw it with Remco, who is really above the rest. He\u2019s a great champion and now he\u2019s a four-time world champion. It\u2019s respected. Pippo [Ganna] is also a very great champion. I\u2019m happy to be alongside these two guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Seixas acknowledged that Jacob S\u00f6derqvist had been riding very strongly but had crashed. The Norwegian was five seconds ahead of the Frenchman at the final checkpoint but fell soon afterwards. He ended up fifth.<\/p>\n To his credit, Seixas recognized that S\u00f6derqvist might have beaten him and, if so, that this would have put him off the podium.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like to say it was luck but yeah, S\u00f6derqvist was very solid today. He fell and it\u2019s obviously not something you enjoy even if it worked out for me in the end.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I still have that little bitterness of saying that I came third because a guy fell. We don\u2019t know what could have happened, even if I don\u2019t know exactly how much time he lost. It\u2019s not great for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Seixas acknowledged that he likely too fewer risks in the corners. His staying upright versus S\u00f6derqvist\u2019s crash suggests that slightly slower was a better tactic.<\/p>\n He also had more to lose if he fell, given that he will be one of the big favorites for next Sunday\u2019s road race.<\/p>\n Aiming higher for road worlds That road race was always going to be Seixas\u2019 best chance of a rainbow jersey. He\u2019s not a TT specialist, even if he is rapidly improving. His real strengths are when the road tilts uphill, which will be a huge asset next weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess I hope to do better than today and be on a different part of the podium,\u201d he said, when asked about his goals for that race.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we have the team to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Seixas acknowledged that the TT is a completely different disciple.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t compare it to an effort in a one-day race because there\u2019s endurance, there\u2019s tactics, and the effort is completely different.<\/p>\n \u201cI think physically I\u2019m strong and I feel good and that\u2019s very good news and today I felt strong again. Now we have to race well, race smart.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some very strong riders against me and I hope it goes well. But anyway, there you go. We have the cards and now we just have to play them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Seixas smashed expectations with bronze in Sunday\u2019s TT, adding to speculation he can win road worlds. Paul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,214038,63,784,68224,85,179013,114968,100857,75494,67883],"class_list":["post-899503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-audio-true","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-filippo-ganna","tag-tag-paul-seixas","tag-tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-tag-uci-road-world-championships","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899503","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=899503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Gold](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2296286281.jpg\"\/)
Gold medalist Remco Evenepoel congratulated Paul Seixas on his strong performance (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2295782860.jpg\"\/)
A podium is great but Paul Seixas wants more in the road race (Photo: Andrej Ivanov \/ AFP)<\/p>\n