‘My ears are still ringing’: Seixas keeps Tour podium dream alive after ‘one of the hardest days on the bike’
Paul Seixas finished fifth on Alpe d’Huez among the GC contenders and remains just 24 seconds from the Tour de France podium after what he described as one of the hardest days of his life on a bike.
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At the summit of Alpe d’Huez, with the noise of thousands of supporters still echoing around the mountain, Paul Seixas looked exhausted but far from defeated.
The Frenchman had just completed a punishing nineteenth stage of the Tour de France, finishing fifth behind an untouchable Tadej Pogačar. He crossed the line 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the yellow jersey, having fought to limit his losses when the race exploded on the lower slopes of the iconic climb.
“It was terrible. It was exhausting,” Seixas said after the finish in the flash interview. “The crowd was going crazy. My ears are still ringing. It was magical, but at the same time it was probably one of the hardest days of my life on a bike.”
Pogačar produced a record breaking ascent to take the stage victory and strengthen his grip on the yellow jersey. Behind him, however, another important battle was taking place.
Seixas initially led the chase as the general classification group fractured, with Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro and Mattias Skjelmose following his wheel.
He was unable to respond when Evenepoel and Del Toro accelerated further up the climb, but continued at his own pace and crossed the line alongside Skjelmose, not far behind the Belgian and the Mexican.
Limiting the damage
It was not the performance Seixas had hoped to produce, but it was enough to keep him firmly in contention for a place on the final podium in Paris.
“I limited the damage,” he said. “In the end, I did not have the legs I had hoped for, but it is still a good performance. I am still in the fight for the podium.”
Seixas remains fourth overall, only 24 seconds behind Del Toro in third place. With another demanding mountain stage still to come, the fight is far from settled.
“There is still tomorrow,” Seixas said. “It is going to be very hard, and it will come down to the legs.”
While Seixas was honest about his own physical limits, he was unequivocal in his praise for the Decathlon CMA CGM riders who had supported him throughout the stage.
“The guys did a five star job today,” he said. “Everyone was at their best.”
Result: Tour de France stage 19
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