![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/paul-seixas-6a4a6f5328e86.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Belgian was also unhappy with the communication issues that followed as the team tried to organise the chase from the road and the following car. \u201cThere was also a lot of confusion over the radio connection with our team car,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe can almost communicate with the moon by radio, but apparently in the race that is still difficult… Anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seixas forced into chase as UAE light up Montjuic<\/p>\n
The timing of the incident turned a dangerous finale into an even more complicated one for Decathlon. Seixas was forced into a bike change just before the race hit the Barcelona circuit, where repeated climbs of Montjuic were expected to create the first real GC selection of the 2026 Tour.<\/p>\n
UAE immediately made that section count. Brandon McNulty drove the pace for Tadej Pogacar, with Isaac del Toro and Adam Yates also part of a dominant UAE presence at the front. The bunch rapidly began to shrink, leaving Seixas and Decathlon trying to regain position while the stage was already being reshaped.<\/p>\n
Seixas managed to get back in time, and Benoot then took responsibility on the final Montjuic climb. His turn on the front stretched the group and helped keep his leader in contention before the last run towards the Olympic Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, we were able to move up again in time towards the final lap,\u201d Benoot continued. \u201cI put myself on the front on the final climb to set the pace for Paul, and I think he came through it well, knowing that he had to come back after his bike change.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paul Seixas on stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n
Decathlon limit losses on chaotic Barcelona finale<\/p>\n
Seixas\u2019 recovery became one of the quieter saves of the day. While UAE went on to dominate the finish, with Del Toro winning ahead of Pogacar after the Slovenian allowed his teammate to cross first, the Decathlon leader avoided the kind of time loss that had briefly looked possible when his mechanical struck.<\/p>\n
The final climb still caused damage elsewhere. Mathieu van der Poel lost contact on the last ascent, while several riders who had survived deep into the finale were unable to stay with the reduced favourites\u2019 group once the pace lifted again.<\/p>\n
Seixas finished safely enough to move up to sixth overall, 42 seconds behind yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard. Given the timing of the bike change, the radio confusion and UAE\u2019s pressure on Montjuic, Decathlon came away with a strong GC position but clear frustration over how close the incident came to costing them far more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Belgian was also unhappy with the communication issues that followed as the team tried to organise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,117520,112065,101,117519,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-decathlon-cma-cgm-team","tag-paul-seixas","tag-sports","tag-tiesj-benoot","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676189","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=676189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}