Paul Seixas shocks La Flèche Wallonne on debut: 'I just went full gas until the line'

Moments after the finish, Seixas immediately turned the spotlight away from himself. “I have to thank my teammates,” he said in the flash interview, emphasising how the race had been built from the front by his team.

“My team controlled the peloton well and rode at the front. We had some difficult moments for some riders, but they did everything,” he added, describing the win as “really a collective victory.”

The scale of what he had achieved had not fully sunk in yet. “I used to watch this race on TV, and now I win here. That’s really something special,” Seixas said.  

“First participation, first victory. Incredible.”

His ride on the Mur de Huy was characterised by control. Seixas positioned himself carefully, conserving energy before taking command at the decisive moment. “We set the tempo first with the team,” he explained.

“I took the chance to stay in the wheels to save energy. I knew I had to be at the front and really set my own tempo. High tempo,” he said. “I looked back sometimes to see how the others felt. I saw everyone was on the limit.”

That awareness eventually defined his move. “I tried to judge my opponents and the situation,” Seixas said.

“Then I felt I was really strong. I made my effort at 300 meters, and then I saw they were struggling behind, so I just went full gas until the line.”

But even after this historic victory, Seixas is already looking ahead. “Sunday against Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel [in Liège-Bastogne-Liège], that’s a different race. I’ll try to give my very best, but today is already a sign that I am in form".

With his explosive move on the Mur de Huy, the young Frenchman has only further fuelled the hype for this edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, even though he admitted just yesterday that he didn’t believe in a victory.

“We’re talking about maybe the best rider ever,” Seixas said at the press conference. “Right now, I don’t have the level to beat him.”

That may well be true, but it certainly looks like a contender has emerged who can at least come closer to that level.