{"id":566803,"date":"2026-05-05T04:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566803\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T04:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T04:28:12","slug":"french-teen-prodigy-paul-seixas-to-make-tour-de-france-debut-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566803\/","title":{"rendered":"French teen prodigy Paul Seixas to make Tour de France debut this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>French teenage prodigy Paul Seixas announced on Monday that he will ride the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/tour-de-france\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tour de France<\/a> in July for the first time, raising hopes of a first home winner in more than four decades.<\/p>\n<p>No Frenchman has won the Tour since Bernard Hinault did so for a record-equalling fifth time in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old Seixas has been in stunning form this season, winning seven races and pushing all-time great <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/tadej-pogacar\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tadej Pogacar<\/a> close in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Monument one-day classic a week ago.<\/p>\n<p>He has ridden two week-long stage races and four one-day classics this season, and has not finished below second.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-read-more\">Read more<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/live-news\/20260422-french-teenager-seixas-becomes-youngest-winner-of-la-fleche-wallonne\" class=\"a-read-more__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">French teenager Seixas becomes youngest Fleche Wallonne winner<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He will be the youngest rider to start a Tour in 89 years when the Grand Boucle begins in Barcelona on July 4.<\/p>\n<p>In a video posted to social media by Seixas&#8217;s Decathlon CMA CGM team, he is shown visiting his grandparents in the eastern Haut-Savoie region near his home in Lyon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve come here to announce to you something special, I have a race in July,&#8221; he tells his grandparents, before they guess that he is talking about the Tour.<\/p>\n<p>Seixas&#8217;s potential participation in the sport&#8217;s most prestigious race has been the subject of much speculation, especially since he has demonstrated that he is already one of the best riders in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Many experts believe it is too soon for him to tackle the 3,333 kilometer (2,069 mile) long three-week race, which includes eight mountain stages, including five summit finishes.<\/p>\n<p>It will be his first grand tour and the first time he has tackled a race longer than eight days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-read-more\">Read more<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/sport\/20260411-teen-star-seixas-secures-basque-tour-victory-august-wins-sixth-stage\" class=\"a-read-more__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">French teen star Seixas becomes youngest ever winner of Basque Tour<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But he has excelled in every other challenge put before him this season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If he&#8217;s not ready, then who is ready?&#8221; his Belgian team-mate Oliver Naesen told Cyclingnews last month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s 100 percent ready to go to the Tour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Marc Madiot, the sporting director of rival French team Groupama-FDJ United believes it would be unwise for the young star to compete so soon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We underestimate what the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/tour-de-france\/\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tour de France<\/a> is,&#8221; he told RMC radio station on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you ride the Tour de France&#8230; you enter into a washing machine which wears you down, which devours you day after day,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>And in four-time winner Pogacar, Seixas will be up against &#8220;someone who destroys his rivals mentally one after another, even his own team-mates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(FRANCE 24 with AFP)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French teenage prodigy Paul Seixas announced on Monday that he will ride the Tour de France in July&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,819,217,101,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-566803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-france","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566803","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=566803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}