'It was a failure' – Seixas delivers brutal verdict on his own time trial

Paul Seixas has had quite an impressive 2025 so far in his neo-pro season with Decathlon AG2R, the young talent has already ridden top results including a top ten in the general classification at the Dauphiné in June and winning the general classification of the race of the future, the Tour de l’Avenir.

Heading into the cauldron of fire, that being the men's elite time trial in Kigali, expectations were set with compatriot and Decathlon AG2R teammate, Bruno Armirail who is the current French ITT champion, stated a day before to reporters "I think he'll be in the top 5, but don't tell him. Between 4th and 6th-7th at the most. He's really good, he's trained well, he's a very good climber, a good rouleur, the course suits him very well,"

Ultimately, it wasn't to be for Seixas in the Rwandan capital as he had to settle for a 16th-placed finish, +04:14 off of race winner, Remco Evenepoel, with it appearing to the eye that the distance in the effort simply proved to be too much for Seixas.

In an interview after the race with French broadcaster France 3 Seixas certainly didn't hold back on his self, with frank honesty, 'Today was a failure. My legs just weren't there. It's disappointing to have prepared for something like this and to have performed so poorly,’ he said, ‘I'd been struggling a bit for the last two or three days, I had my doubts. I'm disappointed with my performance, but I'm not giving up.’

Seixas followed on, in the interview, continuing with the brute honesty, "I'm going to be a bit hard on myself about my performance, but I really wasn't good today. I didn't achieve the results I was hoping for," Back at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships in Zurich, Seixas had won the men's junior ITT and with Seixas achieving a podium in the French men's elite ITT, it's easy to depict why Seixas is bitterly disappointed with the result on Sunday.

Effort management is what Seixas believes potentially hindered him the most, with himself stating, ‘What disappoints me most is my management of the effort, which was really not good," Seixas said. "I started too fast, thinking I was below my best, when in fact I was above it.

I blew up after the first interval, I was dead, I couldn't manage it," he continued. "I should have taken that into account, and the fact that in recent days I wasn't at all where I wanted to be in terms of time. Many will say the same thing, we were all a little weaker, the conditions were tough with the heat and altitude. I had prepared well in completely different temperatures."

Seixas concluded his interview with reiterating his disappointment at the result, ‘I came here to learn, of course, but also to learn how to manage my time. We did well, we prepared well. I didn't set myself crazy goals, but I didn't listen to my body and I was in trouble the whole time. It's a big disappointment not to have been able to perform at the level I wanted to.’

Seixas will be competing in the men's elite road race on September 28 for the French national team and the Frenchman will likely be a support rider for Julian Alaphilippe as he chases a famed men's road race rainbow jersey.