{"id":568752,"date":"2026-05-06T06:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/568752\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T06:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T06:15:13","slug":"paul-seixas-is-going-to-enter-into-tour-de-france-legend-race-director-christian-prudhomme-joins-excitement-for-french-prodigys-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/568752\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Paul Seixas is going to enter into Tour de France legend’ \u2013 Race director Christian Prudhomme joins excitement for French prodigy’s debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the excitement surrounding the news that Paul Seixas will make his Tour de France debut<\/a> this year, there is one figure who is no doubt rubbing his hands with glee. Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour, has the hottest property in world cycling on his start line for July.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great news,\u201d Prudhomme said in an interview with French broadcaster RMC<\/a>. \u201cThere is such a big surge of enthusiasm surrounding him after his impressive performances. We were very keen to see him at the start of the Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Seixas<\/a> is only 19 years of age and has never ridden a race longer than eight days in length. However, the level he has reached in what is proving to be a breakthrough second season has seen him fast-tracked to the sport\u2019s biggest stage, as confirmed by his Decathlon CMA CGM team on Monday.<\/p>\n

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Seixas has won six races already in 2026, taking out La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne<\/a> and dominating Itzulia Basque Country, while his runner-up finishes at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge and Strade Bianche have fueled the narrative of this being the challenger-in-waiting to the dominance of Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul Seixas is clearly not the favorite for this year\u2019s Tour, but seeing him at the start by the side of Poga\u010dar, of Vingegaard, and the rest, it\u2019s something very powerful, even more so when he says himself that he\u2019s not coming to make up the numbers, he\u2019s not coming to gain experience, but that he\u2019s coming to achieve the best result possible,” Prudhomme said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be the youngest rider at the start of the Tour since 1937, and with ambitions too, so it\u2019s something huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Christian\n<\/p>\n

Prudhomme (right) with the last French Tour winner, Bernard Hinault (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Prudhomme was not overly forthcoming in predicting what exactly Seixas might achieve in terms of results. \u201cA stage win, why not?\u201d he said, before adding that a place on the overall podium \u201cdoesn\u2019t seem illusory\u201d.<\/p>\n

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However, what Produhomme was keener to underline was the impact the 19-year-old might have on the racing itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m convinced he\u2019s going to give us emotions, because he is capable of attacking from afar, he is capable of attacking everywhere. He has the insouciance of youth. There\u2019s terrain made for riders who are strong and who dare. He is strong, and he dares.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tour, the popularity of the Tour and the legend of the Tour is constructed not by this or that champion, but by champions, generation after generation, from Maurice Garin through Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault\u2026 he is going to enter into that legend, and I obviously wish him the best. But he\u2019s going to offer us a lot of emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seixas\u2019 nationality is also clearly a major factor for the director of the Tour de France<\/a>, where the home country has endured a painfully long wait for a home men\u2019s winner since Bernard Hinault last triumphed in 1985. Prudhomme made several references to Hinault, especially when discussing the fervour already building around Seixas, and that will surely reach fever pitch in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready, at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, I was in the car behind Poga\u010dar and Seixas, and what did I hear from the side of the roads? ‘Go on Paul! Come on Seixas!’ Evidently, that support will be stronger still at the Tour de France,\u201d Prudhomme said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what [the pressure] will be like, and I don\u2019t think he really realises that fully either. It\u2019s a very important aspect. Recovery is paramount at the Tour de France. I remember seeing Julian Alaphilippe in 2019, so friendly, spending so much time with people after the stages. But it\u2019s clear that, at a certain moment, that wears you down. So recovery is paramount. We will see how he deals with all that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid the excitement surrounding the news that Paul Seixas will make his Tour de France debut this year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-568752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568752","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=568752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}