Seixas ends 19-year drought for France: 'I can compete with the best in the world'

It might be Paris-Roubaix weekend, but the eyes of French cycling are directed elsewhere right now. Saturday morning’s edition of L’Équipe carried a picture of Paul Seixas on the cover with the headline: “Yellow suits him so well.”

It remains to be seen if Seixas will make his Tour de France debut in July and it’s still unknown, of course, if he can end a home drought that stretches back to Bernard Hinault’s fifth and final overall victory in 1985.

In the here and now, however, the 19-year-old has ended a different winless sequence for French cycling. By sealing overall victory at Itzulia Basque Country on Saturday, he has become the first French rider to win a WorldTour stage race since Christophe Moreau landed the Critérium du Dauphiné back in 2007, when Seixas was barely a year old.

Already winner of three stages this week, Seixas put in another remarkable solo effort on a rain-soaked stage 6, when he attacked with 55km go in a bid to bridge up to a sizeable early break. 

The move was an ambitious one given the rain and the headwind, and Seixas would have to relent almost 40km later at the base of the day’s final climb, but the ease with which he left Florian Lipowitz et al behind was still striking.

He came home with Lipowitz, four minutes down on the day’s winner AJ August, but without ever really risking his yellow jersey. Seixas won the race by 2:30 from Lipowitz, while Tobias Halland Johannessen was the beneficiary of the break, moving to third at 2:33.

“It was an incredible day. I felt super good and my team did a great job to place me up until I decided to attack and go for it,” Seixas told Eurosport and RMC in the mixed zone. “It was a very tough day for everybody, and I’m very happy to have won the GC and three stages.

“It was an exceptional week. I’m happy to see I was up there all the time and strong all the time.”

Seixas’ dominance in the Basque Country follows a sparkling start to 2026 in which he placed second to Tadej Pogacar at Strade Bianche after winning the Ardèche Classic and a stage at the Volta ao Algarve. The Ardennes Classics are next on Seixas’s agenda. 

“Of course, I know I can compete with the best in the world,” Seixas said. “But there were some riders who weren’t here, and some who crashed or weren’t well, so I won’t say I’m the best or in the best three, but I know I can play a bit with them and ride at the front with ambition, and that’s what’s good.”

Inevitably, talk turned to Seixas’ possible Tour debut, but he stuck politely to the line agreed with his Decathlon CMA CGM team since the start of the season. “We’ll see after Flèche and Liège,” he said. “This week was incredible, we’ll see for the rest.”