Seixas obliterates stellar field at Faun-Ardèche Classic

While most of the sport's Classics specialists are racing over the border in Belgium, one-day racing continues in France with the Faun-Ardèche Classic, a hilly thriller that takes in a lot of the same terrain as last year's European Championship road races.

With that in mind, it should be no surprise that young French phenom Paul Seixas would thrive here having finished third behind Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel in early October. Less than two weeks after breaking the seal on his palmarès with stage victory at the Volta ao Algarve, the 19-year-old attacked clear of Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) among many other big hitters.

Seixas went solo about 40 km from the line, and by the finish had put almost two minutes into his closest rivals. Christen out-sprinted Martinez and Jorgenson for runner-up honours, all of whom will get another chance at Sunday's Faun-Drôme in Seixas' absence.

[race_result id=121 stage_id=0 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]