Seixas distances himself from transfer rumours: 'I haven’t seen the contracts yet'

The 19-year-old Frenchman has quickly become one of the most talked-about riders in the race, both because of his performances and because of the interest he is attracting on the transfer market.

Visma | Lease a Bike confirmed their admiration for Seixas this week through CEO Richard Plugge, while in the week before the Tour, Daniel Benson reported that Q36.5-Pinarello were prepared to make a huge offer, said to be worth around €13 million per season.

Speaking on France TV's post-stage Vélo Club show, however, Seixas suggested that the noise around his future has not reached him in the same way it has reached the outside world.

“As I said, I don’t have social media, so I don’t see much,” Seixas said. “But first of all, there are quite a lot of things I have heard about that are false.”

Asked which reports were false, Seixas declined to be specific, but he made clear that he had been surprised by some of the information circulating about him.

“I won’t say,” he said. “In any case, there are no things that are really true or things that are really false, but there is a lot of information that, when I saw it, made me think: ‘Really? What is that?’”

Seixas himself acknowledged that the attention around him has grown, but he was careful not to feed the idea that a decision is imminent or that the numbers being reported should be treated as fact.

“Honestly, I think with everything that is going on around me, there is obviously a buzz. I can’t deny that,” Seixas said. “But I’m not going to say that there are enormous contracts, as we have seen reported. For now, I am staying focused on what I am doing in cycling.”

That message will be welcomed by Decathlon CMA CGM, who see Seixas as a central figure in the team’s future. The French squad are understood to be determined to keep him by matching the biggest offers, while other WorldTour teams, including UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Netcompany-Ineos, are also monitoring his situation.

For now, Seixas is not presenting himself as a rider in a hurry to leave. Instead, he is trying to keep the speculation at a distance while he focuses on his first Tour de France.

“I haven’t seen the contracts yet,” he said. “I still have a good year to do with the team next year, and time to think about what I want to do with my future. In any case, you can see that within the team I am well supported.”