The 19-year-old Decathlon-CMA CGM rider is tipped to take the cycling world by storm, with TNT Sports cycling expert Jens Voigt among those to heap praise upon the teenager.<\/p>\n
When asked whether he’d seen a rider performing as impressively as Seixas at the age of 19, Voigt said: “He’s the kind of rider you\u2019d compare to Peter Sagan, a young Laurent Jalabert, or a very young Bernard Hinault. A rider like that comes along once every 20 years.<\/p>\n
“Given how things have gone so far this year, you have to say he\u2019s the legitimate successor to Tadej Pogacar<\/a>.<\/p>\n “He\u2019s the first rider in years who\u2019s been able to stay with Pogacar for a very, very long time. Remco [Evenepoel] was already dropped at the Redoute last year, but young Seixas is still with the group this year and isn\u2019t dropped until the final climb.<\/p>\n Pogacar sprints to impressive Stage 1 victory<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n “He\u2019s better than all the other Pogacar chasers. He\u2019s a once-in-a-century talent.”<\/p>\n Given the Pogacar comparisons, Voigt added that “not much” separates the two riders, continuing: “One thing is maturity. Pogacar is a seasoned rider who has already competed in many tough races and Grand Tours. He can read a race; he knows how it works.<\/p>\n “If something doesn\u2019t suit him, he shapes the race to suit him. The biggest difference between the two, however, is that Pogacar has an incredibly strong team with a virtually unlimited budget behind him. He can do more wind tunnel tests, more training camps.<\/p>\n “On top of that, he has domestiques who have already won Grand Tours or stood on the podium.<\/p>\n “Decathlon is far, far from that. They\u2019re a great team and do a fantastic job for their budget, but they just don\u2019t have a Jo\u00e3o Almeida or an Isaac Del Toro.”<\/p>\n ‘He should race’Seixas and his team have so far remained tight-lipped on whether he will take part in the Tour de France<\/a>.<\/p>\n The sport’s biggest event will start on July 4 in Barcelona and concludes in Paris on July 26.<\/p>\n Voigt believes that Seixas should feature in the Tour, stating: “Yes, he should race.” However, Voigt believes that his team is not ready to compete for the yellow jersey, adding: “And no, the team isn\u2019t ready for that yet. Not this year.<\/p>\n “They put in a heroic effort at the Itzulia Basque Country. But neither [Jonas] Vingegaard nor Pogacar were there with their teams\u2019 strongest line-ups. It\u2019s not the same thing. It would be too easy to say: ‘We\u2019ll triple the length of the race and get the same result.’<\/p>\n Highlights: Seixas becomes youngest-ever La Fleche Wallonne winner<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n “A marathon isn\u2019t just a half marathon doubled in length; it gets exponentially harder toward the end. It\u2019s the same with the Tour. Then there\u2019s the press, sponsor obligations and more pressure. Everyone is ready to give their all for a stage win, for a top-ten spot in the general classification.<\/p>\n “His team lacks the experience, the savvy and the strength to capture a jersey and defend it. It would be too soon and would end in a frustrating experience for the young rider and Decathlon.<\/p>\n “Instead of milking the cow to death, they should let the cow graze in the meadow for a while so it can grow even bigger and stronger.<\/p>\n “Of course, the temptation is great with the sponsors, the public, and the front page of L\u2019Equipe saying: \u2018Paul Seixas, the new superhero.\u2019 But they should be sensible; after all, they want to enjoy him for several years to come.”<\/p>\n Spanish former cyclist Alberto Contador has also admitted that he would “love” to see the Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider take part in the Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Personally, as a spectator, I’d love to see him on the Tour,” the 43-year-old said. “But I would completely understand if both he and the team opted for the Vuelta a Espana. It’s a particular situation with different interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n “If he ends up going to the Tour, he shouldn’t be expected to win; at most, he could be expected to reach the podium. In three-week races, he remains an unknown quantity, despite his great results so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We have to see how he recovers in three weeks. He’s not yet fully developed physically; he’s a junior, he’s 19 years old.”<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a>\u00a0to enjoy more content like this.<\/a>Stream<\/a> the 2026 cycling season live on TNT Sports and HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights: Seixas stars as Pogacar conquers ‘The Old Lady’ again Video credit: TNT Sports The Frenchman came out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,135345,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-562021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562021","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=562021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-a0a99879-effc-4adc-b8a9-ec27ead9c8e3-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
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