Confirmed: Paul Seixas will make Tour de France debut in 2026

Paul Seixas has confirmed that he will ride the 2026 Tour de France, ending months of speculation about whether he would line out in the biggest bike race of them all.

His Decathlon CMA CGM team announced the news on Monday morning in a video where Seixas broke the news to his grandparents. The decision had seemed increasingly likely after Seixas’ streak of results this spring, which included victories at Itzulia Basque Country and Flèche Wallonne and a fine second place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. 

The 19-year-old’s Tour debut will be among the most eagerly awaited in the race’s history. For the home country at least, no debut has been the subject of this much anticipation since Bernard Hinault rode – and won – his first Tour in 1978.

Seixas already caught the eye in his debut professional season last year, when he moved directly from the junior ranks and impressed at the Critérium du Dauphiné. He later won the Tour de l’Avenir, the first and most likely only under-23 race of his career. 

The youngster finished the season with a bronze medal at the European Championships, as well as strong showings at the World Championships and Il Lombardia.

Seixas began 2026 with a stage victory at the Volta ao Algarve, before claiming a crushing triumph at the Faun-Ardèche Classic and placing second to Tadej Pogačar at Strade Bianche.

After a spell at altitude, Seixas proceeded to dominate Itzulia Basque Country, winning three stages en route to becoming the first Frenchman to land a WorldTour stage race since 2007. He carried that form into the Ardennes Classics, conquering the Mur de Huy to become the youngest winner in the history of Flèche Wallonne.

At Liège-Bastogne-Liège four days later, Seixas went head-to-head with Pogačar, matching him on a record-breaking ascent of La Redoute. Although Seixas was eventually distanced by Pogacar on the Roche-aux-Faucons, the race underscored his astonishing rate of development.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG are among the teams to signal their interest in signing Seixas when his current contract expires in 2027, while Decathlon CMA CGM are keen to tie the Frenchman to a long-term deal. It is not clear what weight, if any, those considerations had on the decision to send Seixas to the 2026 Tour.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme had also been very publicly lobbying for Seixas to ride throughout the spring, and in the build-up to Liège, he suggested it was already “90%” likely that the teenager would line up in Barcelona on July 4.

That has now come to pass, and speculation will quickly turn to what Seixas might realistically be able to achieve against Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel in his debut Tour.

The Frenchman will ride the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes (formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné) in June before tackling the Tour. Decathlon also confirmed that Seixas is scheduled to ride the GP Québéc and Montreal before tackling the World Championships in Montreal and round out his season at Il Lombardia, where he finished 7th last year.