Cycling Prodigy Paul Seixas Accepts The Sport’s Defining Burden

When Paul Seixas rode away from Matteo Jorgenson 40 kilometers from the finish of this past weekend's Faun-Ardeche Classic, he was taking a casual drink. The 19-year-old Frenchman had just shattered a small group wending up the Col de Saint Romain de Lerps, forcing a pace only Jorgenson could match, and he was regrouping when he took a drink and noticed the American flagging. So he put his head down and went, not to be seen again until the finish line. If Seixas's riding didn't draw obvious enough comparisons to frequent Jorgenson-dispatcher Tadej Pogacar, the terrain made them unavoidable: Seixas zoomed up the climb in 16:18, tying Pogacar's climb-record time from the 2025 European Championships. Not a bad way to take your second professional win. Seixas's talent is undeniable. He spent his brief junior career dominating those in his age group, setting the stage for a spectacular neo-pro season in which he was the youngest rider at the WorldTour level. Seixas raised eyebrows at his first pro race when he put down a huge performance at last February's GP Grand Prix La Marseillaise, and he was all set for a big spring until he crashed out of the UAE Tour. He recovered in time to have a great Tour of the Alps in April, finishing 1-2 with teammate Nicholas Prodhomme and defying team orders to take the win for himself, before truly hitting the world stage at the Criterium du Dauphine. In the traditional Tour de France tuneup's most competitive edition in years, Seixas finished eighth. This was not the most important result in the race—that'd be Pogacar wobbling in the time trial then recovering to disembowel Jonas Vingegaard—but it was the most discussed. Neither teenagers nor French guys do stuff like that, yet here was Seixas, testing himself against the best riders in the sport and passing with flying colors. It could only have been a more exciting ride if Seixas had won a stage, though his talent was so obvious that he didn't really need to. For cycling fans grown accustomed to Pogacar winning so often and from so far out that he has come to personify the concept of anticlimax, the approach of any potential new challenger was always going to be welcome news. Pogacar still gets in plenty of good, exciting races, though rarely on his terrain, which was where Seixas showed such promise.