{"id":61026,"date":"2025-08-11T08:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/61026\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T08:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:45:08","slug":"belgian-coach-sees-next-pogacar-and-vingegaard-emerging-in-seixas-and-widar-who-face-each-other-in-tour-de-lavenir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/61026\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian coach sees next Pogacar and Vingegaard emerging in Seixas and Widar, who face each other in Tour de l\u2019Avenir"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cycling world has been rejuvenated for some time now. We are increasingly seeing young people in their twenties and even teenagers competing for the top spots in the biggest races. Jarno Widar<\/a> has been considered the next superstar of Belgian cycling for some time now, but in France, people finally seem to have high hopes for an actual class act in Paul Seixas<\/a>. The two will face each other in two weeks.Widar was the top favorite at the start of last year’s Tour de l’Avenir<\/a>, but things went wrong and he collapsed while in contention for the yellow jersey. He will therefore be looking for revenge in the new edition. \u201cHe is in top form,\u201d national coach Serge Pauwels<\/a> confirmed to DirectVelo<\/a>. \u201cThe Tour de l’Avenir suits him well. It’s really his terrain, but I don’t think it will be easy.\u201d This year’s Tour of the Future consists of eight stages spread over seven days: the final day will first feature a road race and then a climbing time trial.A victory for Widar is far from certain. The 19-year-old Belgian will have his work cut out for him against Seixas. \u201cPaul Seixas is a phenomenon,\u201d Pauwels knows. The young Frenchman is making a huge impression in his first WorldTour year, with outstanding performances in the Tour of the Alps and the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9<\/a>, among others. \u201cFinishing eighth in your first Dauphin\u00e9 at the age of 18 is incredible. It will be a bit like Pogacar against Vingegaard. We are hopeful, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"jarno-widar\"\/Widar aiming for world title, but another super talent is emerging: “Looks a bit like Seixas”While Seixas is already making an impression at the professional level, Widar is winning just about everything in the U23 category. With victories in Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, the Tour de l’Isard, and the Giro della Valle d’Aosta<\/a>, everything is going smoothly for the climber, apart from his DNF in the Giro Next Gen. He would like to become the world champion in Rwanda, after his failed attempt in Zurich. For the first time, no pros will be allowed to compete in the U23 category, which is an advantage for Widar. \u201cEveryone is waiting for his breakthrough. But it won’t get any easier. He is very strong, and if he has a good day, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pauwels knows that he has a diamond in the rough with the 19-year-old Lotto rider, but according to the former climber, there is another 17-year-old super talent who will soon be making a name for himself. \u201cSeff Van Kerckhove is a bit like Seixas, all things considered,\u201d he says, praising the Belgian who now rides for the U19 team of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. \u201cHe is someone with a promising future, even though he has only just started. What he has already achieved, whether in time trials or uphill… It’s really at a super high level.” So write that name down.<\/p>\n

Naesen full of praise for ‘god given talent’ SeixasYou don’t have to be an expert to see that Seixas is a top talent. But at Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, they consider themselves lucky, because it’s not just the 18-year-old rider who is impressing. There is another very young Frenchman in the team: L\u00e9o Bisiaux won a stage in the Tour of Burgos this week and finished third overall. \u201cCompared to Seixas, he’s more of a hyper-disciplined guy. The kind of guy who goes to bed at 9:30 and cooks chicken without butter or oil,\u201d teammate Oliver Naesen<\/a> told Wielerrevue<\/a> about Bisiaux.<\/p>\n

The two Frenchmen are from the same generation, but there is a big difference between the two youngsters. \u201cPaul seems to have a little more of that \u2018god given talent,\u2019\u201d explains the Belgian veteran. \u201cL\u00e9o more like Vingegaard and Paul more like Pogacar? I’m not going to compare them to those guys. Those are big shoes to fill, but I understand what you mean.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cycling world has been rejuvenated for some time now. We are increasingly seeing young people in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-61026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}