'Everyone makes their own decisions' - Matxin on how Seixas' Tour debut differs from Pogacar's

Over the spring, it had started to feel something like cycling’s answer to LeBron James’ The Decision, and the big announcement finally arrived at the beginning of May. Paul Seixas will make his Tour de France debut this July, lining up at the race with high ambitions at just 19 years of age.

Seixas will be the youngest Tour participant since Adrien Cento in 1937, but that detail won’t prevent much of France from pinning its hopes on the Decathlon CMA CGM rider to end the 41-year drought to the last home victory.

After victories at Itzulia Basque Country and Flèche Wallonne, and after daring to go head-to-head with Tadej Pogačar himself at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Seixas’ Tour participation became an inevitability, despite his tender years.

But although Seixas clearly has the physical ability to be competitive this July, it remains to be seen if fielding him in the Tour at this early stage is the right decision for his long-term development.

Then again, UAE Team Emirates-XRG fielded Juan Ayuso in his debut Vuelta a España as a teenager, and he proceeded to become the youngest Grand Tour podium finisher since 1904. And although his time at the team ended in acrimony last autumn, his early start in three-week racing doesn’t seem to have stunted his development in the years since.

Speaking to Domestique, UAE sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez saw some parallels between Seixas and Ayuso’s rapid development as teenagers, as well as one key difference. In the cases of Ayuso, Isaac del Toro and even Tadej Pogačar, UAE felt the Vuelta was a more suitable stage for a three-week debut than the Tour itself.

“I think that deep down, a young rider always has ambition, especially when he wins and finds himself competing against the best, so he wants to be in the biggest races,” Matxin told Domestique.

“Based on my experience with riders like Ayuso, Tadej or Del Toro, my opinion is that a 19-year-old rider should possibly race another three-week event before the Tour de France so he can adapt to that format. That way, when he gets to the Tour de France, he’ll know what three weeks are like and he’ll have understanding of what a three-week race entails.

“But everyone makes their own decisions. And to be honest, we didn’t even have a Grand Tour planned for Tadej in his first year because he was so young, but we put him in the Vuelta to speed up the process.

“Exactly the same thing happened with Juan Ayuso, and with Del Toro, he did a Vuelta the year before he did the Giro, even if nobody remembers it because he was sick. Then he did a Giro and now he’s doing the Tour, and I think that’s possibly the most natural way to develop a young rider.”

UAE, of course, have been tracking Seixas’ progress closely over the past year and a half. The team is reportedly among his many suitors should he decide not to renew his contract with Decathlon CMA CGM, which expires at the end of 2027.

But in the here and now, Seixas is a direct threat to Pogačar’s hegemony, and he seemed to be drawing closer to the Slovenian across the spring. He was a defiant but distant second to Pogačar at Strade Bianche in March, but he pushed him further at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, withstanding his acceleration on the Côte de la Redoute but eventually losing contact on the final climb of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.

Seixas and Pogačar’s next meeting will be at the Tour in July, and Matxin was measured when asked if the Frenchman was a true rival for the yellow jersey in Paris.

“He’s a very important rival, although both he and we are in a position where we just have to see how far he can go,” Matxin said. “So far, the longest race he’s ever ridden was probably the Tour de l’Avenir last year, and he did very, very well there. So at the Tour, we’ll see how far a rider who is both very young and very good can go.”