Paul Seixas, cycling's quickest learner, takes aim at the Worlds

The Paul Seixas hype train reached such a grande vitesse during the spring that his eventual fourth place on his Tour de France debut had, absurdly, almost felt like par for the course rather than the astonishing achievement it was.

Realistically, the 19-year-old was never going to challenge Tadej Pogačar’s hegemony, but his consistency across the three weeks and across all terrains belied his age and his experience. So too did his calm before the cameras and microphones in a country that has been waiting more than three decades for a Tour winner. 

The Chosen One may have been almost twelve minutes off Pogačar by the time the Tour reached Paris, but his performances still demonstrated precisely why he has a better chance than anyone since Laurent Fignon in 1989 of emulating Bernard Hinault and returning France to the top of the podium.

In generations past, the Tour might essentially have marked the end of the season for a debutant like Seixas, but he has spent the past two months preparing assiduously for the final goal of his remarkable season at the World Championships.

One of the many explanations given for France’s relative underachievement at the Worlds – ten gold medals in the men’s road race to Belgium’s 27 and Italy’s 19 – is the nation’s understandable fixation with the Tour. 

The charge traditionally levelled at France’s stars was that, after peaking in July, they seemed to prefer to cash in with lucrative criterium appearances for the rest of the summer rather than build specifically towards the Worlds like their rivals over the border. 

The criterium scene, in France and beyond, isn’t what it was in days of yore, and Seixas, in any case, is a thoroughly modern bike rider, a citizen of the cycling world, so to speak. He was never going to rest on his laurels after the Tour, and the World Championships was the most obvious target after his fine displays for the French national team last autumn.

In Kigali, Seixas battled his way to a creditable 13th in the toughest Worlds road race since Duitama in 1995. In Guilherand-Granges a week later, Seixas was full value for bronze behind Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel.

Those performances suggested that the teenager was improving by the week, and that impression was borne out in the spring of 2026, starting with Seixas’ crushing display at the Classic Faun-Ardèche. The race took in much of the same terrain as the European Championships, and Seixas matched Pogačar’s time on the climb of Saint-Romain-de-Lerps.

For the remainder of the spring, Seixas’ stock continued to grow. He was the only rider to dream of following Pogačar at Strade Bianche. Two months and a series of sparkling wins later, he was the only rider who actually could follow Pogačar on La Redoute at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

It scarcely mattered that Seixas was dropped on the Roche-aux-Faucons, because he had already done more than enough to confirm that his progress was continuing at the most astonishing pace. In that light, Seixas’ fourth place on his Tour debut might have felt vaguely anticlimactic to some. Rationally, of course it was anything but. 

In any case, Seixas’ progress through his autumn slate of racing is so far looking distinctly like his scintillating spring campaign. Every week shows improvement on the last. Every race hints at wonders that await around the corner. And through it all, he keeps carrying himself with the nonchalance of a kid utterly unburdened by the talent he possesses and unfazed by the expectation it creates.

At the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, Seixas’ first race since the Tour, he was a relatively subdued 17th. Two days later, on terrain more suited to his talents, he was second behind Isaac del Toro at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal. It was a foretaste of a duel that might be repeated for years to come, starting at the Worlds road race.

And on Sunday, Seixas delivered his most striking display since the spring when he claimed the bronze medal on a flat and fast Worlds time trial course that seemed utterly unsuited to his gifts. 

It was only France’s third ever medal in the elite men’s time trial, after Laurent Jalabert’s surprise win in San Sebastián in 1997 and Jérôme Coppel’s bronze medal in Richmond in 2015. Given that time trialling was the Achilles heel that doomed the Tour challenges of men like Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot, Seixas’ performance in the 39.2km test augured especially well for his chances of eventually harpooning French cycling’s White Whale. But it also demonstrated that Seixas has succeeded in reaching a third peak in 2026 after his exploits in the spring and in July. 

With Pogačar ruled out through injury, Seixas isn’t simply a podium prospect at this Worlds, he is a viable contender to claim the rainbow jersey. 

Above all, Seixas’ remarkable power-to-weight ratio on short, sharp climbs gives him a weapon that perhaps only Del Toro also possesses at this Worlds. If he is to win the title, Seixas will likely need to make his move on the Voie Camillien-Houde on the final lap, but he certainly won’t get an armchair ride to that point, despite having a French team entirely devoted to his challenge.

For all the physical demands of this Worlds course, with 3,803m of climbing across its 273km, this will still be a race of wits as much as of watts. Decision-making at key moments will be crucial, especially when faced with a Belgian team that carries the dual threat of Evenepoel and Wout van Aert. Seixas’ Decathlon CMA CGM teammate Nicolas Prodhomme, who also lines up in the French team on Sunday, identified it as the biggest gap in his armoury. 

“All the races he’s won, he’s just had to push hard on the pedals,” Prodhomme told Eurosport, acknowledging that this Worlds would be a different kind of test. “I am not saying he is stupid, far from it. But he has not faced many strategic race finales.”

Seixas was certainly outmanoeuvred by Del Toro in the finale at the GP de Montréal, even if he insisted afterwards that it was all part of the process as he builds towards the main event. “I was here to make mistakes to see how it goes,” Seixas said. “Of course, I have some things in the back of my mind to keep to the Worlds.”

Seixas’ time trial underlined that he is a rapid developer, but he also seems to be a quick learner, hence why Thomas Voeckler has built his team around him. In the road race, anything is possible.