{"id":706437,"date":"2026-07-23T04:04:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/706437\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T04:04:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:04:30","slug":"paul-seixas-carries-the-hopes-of-a-nation-on-his-shoulders-but-what-makes-the-19-year-old-cyclist-so-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/706437\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Seixas carries the hopes of a nation on his shoulders, but what makes the 19-year-old cyclist so good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Seixas is a 19-year-old from Lyon, France and, arguably, the most gifted of a talented generation of young cyclists competing as fully fledged professionals. Sir Matt Busby\u2019s famous asseveration \u2013 \u201cIf they\u2019re good enough, they\u2019re old enough\u201d \u2013 is cycling\u2019s new mantra, in a sport where riders were previously not thought to peak until their late 20s.<\/p>\n

In the seven years since Remco Evenepoel ascended to the professional ranks as the reigning junior world road and time-trial champion, bypassing the under-23 category entirely and scoring nine victories in his first season (2019), modern cycling\u2019s obsession with youth has become, arguably, its defining feature.<\/p>\n

The sport\u2019s era-defining rider, Tadej Poga\u010dar, is a case in point. When the Slovenian won his first Tour de France title in 2020, he stepped onto the podium in Paris on the day before his 22nd birthday, becoming the youngest winner of the race since a 19-year-old Henri Cornet in 1904. In 2026, Poga\u010dar is gunning for a record-equalling fifth title<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the fresh-faced Seixas became the youngest Tour de France starter for 89 years \u2013 and arrived at the Grand D\u00e9part in Barcelona in July backed by French supporters who haven\u2019t celebrated a home winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985.<\/p>\n

Cycling\u2019s youth revolution shows no signs of slowing and Seixas is the latest frontman of a sport-wide shift that\u2019s fast-tracking teenagers to the pro ranks.<\/p>\n

Espoir exceptionnel
\n\"PaulSeixas on his way to victory in the Volta ao Algarve. Jo\u00e3o Matos \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Seixas, who rides for the Decathlon CMA CGM team, is an exceptional talent, even by the exceptional standards of an exceptional era. Last year, he won the Tour de l\u2019Avenir, the sport\u2019s most prestigious under-23 race and the ultimate predictor of Tour de France success, with four years in hand. It was his final engagement as an under-23 rider.<\/p>\n

In his very next race, the World Championships in Rwanda, Seixas chose to compete as an elite, testing himself against the sport\u2019s biggest names. A week later, he finished third at the European Championships in France, beaten only by the now two-time world champion Poga\u010dar, and Evenepoel.<\/p>\n

This year, his career has gone supernova. In February, Seixas scored his first pro victory at the Volta ao Algarve, before raising his arms again a week later at the Faun-Ard\u00e8che Classic. In March, he finished second to Poga\u010dar at the Strade Bianche.<\/p>\n

\"PaulOn the podium with Poga\u010dar and Evenepoel at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In April, Seixas claimed his first stage race, winning three stages and every jersey competition en route to overall victory at Itzulia Basque Country. For an encore, he won La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne at his first attempt. Still more impressive was his second place at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, achieved in another extraordinary debut.<\/p>\n

His battle with Poga\u010dar on La Redoute will doubtless be replayed endlessly as the Tour unfolds. Ultimately, the Slovenian distanced Seixas on the Rocheaux-Faucons and rode away to a third consecutive victory at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge but, by finishing as runner-up \u2013 dropping Evenepoel, a two-time winner of the race, in the process \u2013 Seixas convinced his team to select him for the Tour.<\/p>\n

Such performances have persuaded many in the media to board the Seixas hype train while there is still standing room. Already, he has featured more than once on the cover of L\u2019\u00c9quipe, the French sporting paper of renown, and beneath banner headlines that require no translation (\u201cSeixas Master Classe\u201d).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to overstate his importance to France\u2019s sporting psyche. According to Eurosport Spain, even the French president has been working in the wider cause of French sport by trying to ensure Seixas remains at Decathlon CMA CGM. In April, journalist Edgar Saiz Pern\u00eda reported that Emmanuel Macron had offered his support to the team\u2019s management and spoken to the rider\u2019s agent.<\/p>\n

There seems little doubt that France will succumb to Seixas mania this month. A spotlight will shine brightly not only on his performances, but also on the trajectory of a sport that, increasingly, enables riders who might still be learning to drive to shoulder the burden of leadership.<\/p>\n

Paul Seixas | key stats<\/p>\n

Age: 19
\nNationality: French
\nDate of birth:\u00a0 24\/09\/2006
\nPlace of birth: Lyon
\nKey wins: La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne; Tour of the Basque Country; Tour de l\u2019Avenir<\/p>\n

View from the academy
\n\"PaulSeixas’ incredible talent has been apparent throughout his development. Gongora\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSeixas is phenomenal,\u201d says Tim Elverson. \u201cHe\u2019s been great for years. As a first-year junior, we were monitoring, but he was already locked into Decathlon. He\u2019s not really a big surprise \u2013 you could see this coming a long way out if you\u2019d been scouting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elverson is no casual observer. Rather, he is the academy manager at NSN Cycling, a WorldTeam with an impressively high proportion of graduates from their development squad now riding in the senior team. In a previous life, he owned and managed Britain\u2019s most successful UCI Continental team.<\/p>\n

Elverson\u2019s primary role at NSN is recruiting young riders. His record speaks for itself. His first signing was the sensational Joe Blackmore, who, aged 21, won his first two races with the team, then called Israel-Premier Tech, by claiming overall victory at the Tour du Rwanda and the Tour de Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Ask Elverson how competitive the battle is among WorldTeams to recruit the brightest young talent and he answers in a single word: \u201cVery\u201d. Solicit his opinion on the increasing professionalisation of junior racing and he is equally candid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like it, but if everybody\u2019s doing it, I\u2019d rather get the good riders to me, as I know we\u2019ll look after them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the teams are good, but I know for sure that we really do have [the riders\u2019] welfare at heart. I like the fact that we\u2019ll talk to parents, that we\u2019ll look after riders and won\u2019t put pressure on them, but the reality is, if we don\u2019t talk to anyone until they\u2019re 19, we won\u2019t get any good first-year juniors. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s heard of big teams signing under-16s and acknowledges the concomitant \u2013 riders without a contract fearing their careers are over before they reach their twenties. More positively, he knows of agents who refuse to charge their young clients in the early years of their career, and prefers to deal with them.<\/p>\n

Elverson is open-minded about the effect that early immersion in the professional ranks will have on longevity. The new generation might enter and leave the sport earlier than their forebears, he suggests, but the duration of their careers could be the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe understanding has changed,\u201d he concludes, after listing various factors that have contributed to cycling\u2019s youth revolution, from nutrition to social media. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing with the whole world. We understand everything in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glorious amateurs
\n\"HarryHarry Hudson claiming world championship glory in Rwanda. David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Few are better placed to comment on the challenges and opportunities presented to riders aged 16 to 18 than Tom Denwood, co-manager of Harrogate Nova Race Team, the ambitious junior outfit with solid club foundations that can name Harry Hudson, the reigning junior world road race champion, among its alumni. Knowledge is power, and Denwood sees it every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all of the above,\u201d he replies when asked whether power meters, nutritional gains or online access to the latest training methods have allowed riders young enough still to be studying for exams to perform at a level approaching and, in the case of Seixas, exceeding that of established professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmartphones and the internet have created a democratisation of knowledge. All the information I wanted when I was trying to make it as a junior was kept in people\u2019s minds or in very few books. Now it\u2019s freely available online and in the wonderful GCN videos that everyone learns from,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cApps like Strava and Training Peaks, which suggest trends and training schedules, and track your data, allow riders to take a very metric-driven approach to training. It\u2019s not unusual for a rider to get a coach at the age of 13 or 14. It\u2019s also not unusual for a rider to do a physiology test in a lab when they\u2019re 14 or 15.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Hudson\u2019s triumph in Kigali, Harrogate Nova RT received rider applications from across the globe and are now seeking a formal relationship with a WorldTeam team to create a pathway to professionalism for their most talented youngsters.<\/p>\n

Solid foundation
\n\"TANUNDA,Matthew Brennan is another British rider to have benefited from Rayner Foundation support. Con Chronis\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Rayner Foundation, a respected charity that has helped more than 90 young British riders to turn professional, launched their Gateway Project in 2023 in response to the sport\u2019s increasing focus on the under-19 category, now a beguiling and slightly disconcerting environment in which professional and amateur cycling intersect.<\/p>\n

Ten British junior teams receive the Foundation\u2019s support \u2013 volunteer-led squads that, between them, have produced Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), Cat Ferguson (Movistar) and Tom Gloag (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling), among many other enviable talents. <\/p>\n

Jos Ryan, the Foundation\u2019s rider liaison, says Britain\u2019s most ambitious outfits, seeking to establish themselves against the world\u2019s best, have no choice but to compete with wellresourced foreign rivals for the limited places available in the most prestigious junior races, events now barely distinguishable from their WorldTour equivalents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a chance that they might not be able to get into races, and the reason is other teams have come from all over the world, based themselves in Europe and they\u2019re pushing ahead,\u201d Ryan says.<\/p>\n

Persistence is key, she maintains, and so, as a consequence, is the Foundation\u2019s support. \u201cGoing to races over and over again is what counts. [At] one race, they might not do very well. There might be crashes, illness, or [they might] just not be able to position themselves in the peloton and then get dropped. But if they keep going back, they\u2019re going to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

A text message from Denwood, received two days after our conversation, supports Ryan\u2019s analysis. He informs us that Harrogate Nova have just won the opening stage of the Gipuzkoa Klasikoa, a long-established UCI 2.1 race in the Basque Country. Riders from Cannibal B Victorious, the under-19 feeder for the Bahrain\u2013Victorious WorldTeam, are among those they have beaten.<\/p>\n

Vive la r\u00e9volution?
\n\"PaulSeixas and Poga\u010dar are symbols of cycling’s burgeoning youth revolution. Bernard Papon – Pool\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Seixas\u2019s Tour debut will make Frenchness and youth the dominant themes of this sporting summer. The video published by Decathlon-CMA CGM to announce his participation is a sunlit slice of cinema verit\u00e9 that captures the prodigy visiting his grandparents in the Haute-Savoie to share the news. Their reactions are priceless.<\/p>\n

Beyond the justifiable pride of one exceptional rider\u2019s relatives, however, a battle is being waged for a place in the professional ranks as intense as any that might unfold this July between Seixas and Poga\u010dar. Cycling\u2019s youth revolution is inspiring \u2013 who doesn\u2019t enjoy seeing young people succeed? \u2013 but hugely demanding.<\/p>\n

Vive le Tour? Naturellement. Vive Paul Seixas? Mais oui. Vive la r\u00e9volution? Perhaps. <\/p>\n

Seixas will carry the hopes of a nation on his shoulders this summer \u2013 an onerous burden for a teenager. His ability to withstand the relentless scrutiny will tell us much about cycling\u2019s youth revolution, a generational shift in which life-changing opportunities and intense pressure have become de rigueur for the sport\u2019s most gifted young riders.<\/p>\n

5 youngest Tour de France winners<\/p>\n

Henri Cornet,1904: 19 years and 355 days
\nFran\u00e7ois Faber, 1909: 22 years and 187 days
\nOctave Lapize, 1910: 22 years and 280 days
\nEgan Bernal, 2019: 22 years and 196 days
\nTadej Poga\u010dar, 2020: \u00a021 years and 365 days<\/p>\n

More on the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Seixas is a 19-year-old from Lyon, France and, arguably, the most gifted of a talented generation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-706437","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\/706437","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=706437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}