Frustrated Benoot after Seixas’ bike swap: 'We can almost live on the moon, but still can’t communicate in a race'

The French talent eventually finished ninth, just three seconds behind the main favourites, but the result only told part of the story. In the run up to the decisive climb of Montjuïc, Seixas was forced into a chase after suffering a puncture at one of the worst possible moments of the day.

Tiesj Benoot later became one of the key riders in the finale, taking responsibility near the front of the select group as Decathlon CMA CGM tried to position Seixas for the last climb.

“I had really good legs,” Benoot told Sporza after the finish. “The idea was to put pressure on the riders who were not well positioned.”

But before that finale could fully unfold, Seixas had been put under pressure himself by the mechanical.

According to Benoot, the first solution was a quick bike swap with teammate Aurélien Paret-Peintre, but Seixas still wanted to change back onto his own machine. Getting that message through to the car took too long.

“The communication with the car was difficult,” Benoot explained. “They did not immediately understand that Paul wanted another bike. First he changed with Aurélien, then he wanted his own bike. It took too long before the car understood.”

The confusion did not end there. At the foot of the final ascent of Montjuïc, there was another moment of uncertainty inside Decathlon CMA CGM. Benoot was setting a fierce pace at the front of the select group, while Seixas was sitting much further back and was not yet in the position he wanted.

Speaking after the finish, Seixas said the move had also been affected by a radio problem with sports director Luke Rowe in the team car.

“There was a bit of a problem with the earpiece,” Seixas said, according to L’Équipe. “I was trying to tell them I wasn’t quite ready to attack, but the sports director didn’t understand. He thought I was at 100%, so he sent Tiesj on the attack, even though I hadn’t planned to attack. In the end, my legs felt better than I’d thought, but I’d rather save some energy for later.” sad.”

For Benoot, the incident exposed a weakness that still frustrates riders in the modern peloton.

“It is 2026 and there is still no proper system to communicate,” he said. “We can almost live on the moon, but we still can’t communicate in a race. It is sad.”

Despite the confusion, Seixas managed to fight his way back before Montjuïc, but the effort came at a price. When UAE lifted the pace in the closing kilometres, the earlier chase may have left him with just a little less in reserve.

Benoot was clear about how costly that kind of effort can be.

“When you have to do that in the final five to ten kilometres before a climb, and UAE then goes full gas, that is a hard effort,” he said.

In the end, Seixas only conceded three seconds to the likes of Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Isaac Del Toro. 

On paper, it was a small loss. In the race, it felt like a moment that could have been avoided.