{"id":481631,"date":"2026-03-18T05:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481631\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:21:12","slug":"uae-might-sign-paul-seixas-honestly-i-hope-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481631\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cUAE might sign Paul Seixas? Honestly I hope not\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cYou hear that UAE might sign Seixas. Honestly I hope not, because that would already be incredible,\u201d Rodriguez said in conversation with Marca<\/a>. \u201cAyuso moving to Lidl-Trek, for example, has opened up certain races more. Hopefully, Seixas stays with his team. There\u2019s also talk that Ineos has received a new sponsor and will have more money. We\u2019ll see.\u201dWhy Seixas is suddenly cycling\u2019s hottest property<\/p>\n

The level Seixas has reached this season explains why so many teams are watching closely. The French teenager has already produced a string of performances that would be notable for a seasoned professional, let alone a rider in only his second year in the WorldTour.<\/p>\n

His campaign began with an impressive second place overall at the Volta ao Algarve, where he beat riders such as Joao Almeida in a summit sprint and pushed eventual winner Juan Ayuso throughout the week.<\/p>\n

Only days later, Seixas confirmed that performance was no one-off with a dominant victory at the Faun-Ardeche Classic, attacking from distance and riding clear of rivals including Matteo Jorgenson.<\/p>\n

Even when facing the sport\u2019s current benchmark at Strade Bianche, Seixas again impressed. Pogacar ultimately won after launching one of his trademark long-range moves, but the young Frenchman remained the most persistent chaser before finishing second after distancing Isaac del Toro on the climb to Santa Caterina.<\/p>\n

For many observers, those performances confirmed that Seixas is not merely another promising youngster but a rider capable of shaping the next era of the sport.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Seixas finished 2nd behind Pogacar at Strade Bianche 2026<\/p>\n

The Pogacar factor<\/p>\n

Rodriguez believes that any discussion about cycling\u2019s future still begins with Pogacar, whose dominance continues to set the tone across the peloton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s boring,\u201d Rodriguez said when asked about the Slovenian\u2019s supremacy. \u201cWhen Pogacar wins, it\u2019s always entertaining because UAE moves the race from far out. But there comes a point when it starts to feel like a monologue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou watch Strade Bianche, and you already know how he\u2019s going to race, that he might go solo from 90 kilometres out and win. It\u2019s a bit of a shame. Still, even when he puts on a show, he provides entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

That reality is part of the reason why the idea of Seixas joining Pogacar\u2019s team has sparked debate. If the French prodigy were to sign for UAE, it would place two of the sport\u2019s most explosive attacking riders within the same powerhouse structure.<\/p>\n

A warning about modern cycling\u2019s demands<\/p>\n

Rodriguez also pointed to the increasingly intense demands placed on young riders in today\u2019s peloton, suggesting that careful development may be more important than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cCycling has changed a lot,\u201d he explained. \u201cNow I see youth and junior teams run by friends of mine, and the seriousness with which these young riders work. They prepare from a very young age for what\u2019s coming. When we were juniors, we took a sandwich with us and arrived an hour early just to hang out with friends. It was completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spaniard added that the accelerated path to the top may help explain why more riders appear to reach their peak earlier, and sometimes leave the sport sooner. \u201cIt could be,\u201d he said when asked about increasingly young retirements. \u201cEveryone is different. In our time, I remember cases like Kittel or Dumoulin, but it wasn\u2019t that common. Now, many riders start very young at an extremely high level. Those ten or twelve years of peak performance may start earlier than before.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a rider as young as Seixas, that perspective reinforces the argument that continuing to develop within a team already built around him could be the smartest path forward.<\/p>\n

Ayuso as a future challenger<\/p>\n

While Seixas continues to attract growing attention, Rodriguez also believes the coming years could see multiple riders emerging to challenge Pogacar\u2019s dominance.<\/p>\n

Among them is Ayuso, now riding for Lidl-Trek after his winter transfer. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those riders touched by the magic wand,\u201d Rodriguez said of the Spaniard. \u201cThere are four or five like that. In the Tour, today, with Pogacar, I don\u2019t see anyone, not even Vingegaard. He\u2019s showing incredible superiority. But if Ayuso focuses his calendar on another Grand Tour where he\u2019s racing against Evenepoel or Vingegaard, then he could fight for one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Seixas ultimately stays with Decathlon or becomes the next target in cycling\u2019s transfer market arms race remains to be seen. What is already clear, however, is that the 19-year-old has quickly become central to the sport\u2019s next generational storyline.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cYou hear that UAE might sign Seixas. Honestly I hope not, because that would already be incredible,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,136907,112065,101,8782,109609,12183,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-481631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-joaquim-rodriguez","tag-paul-seixas","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-transfers-negotiations","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}