Seixas 'learns through pain' at Dauphiné – but at what cost for the Tour?

The headline in Monday’s edition of the Le Dauphiné Libéré, the newspaper that used to give its name to the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, neatly captured the way French cycling is teetering between hope and fear for Paul Seixas’ Tour de France challenge.

“‘We learn through pain’: was it ultimately a positive week for Paul Seixas?” Le Dauphiné asked, knowing that the response won’t arrive until July at the earliest. As it so often does, the race threw up more questions than answers about the Tour.

Seixas lined up for the rebranded Dauphiné as the favourite for overall victory after his astonishing sequence of results through the spring. He left the race with his reputation burnished by dramatically chasing back from being four minutes down after crashing heavily on stage 7, but also with fresh doubts about his readiness for the Tour after abandoning the following day.

Decathlon CMA CGM directeur sportif Julien Jurdie sought to put a positive gloss on the whole affair, downplaying the impact of the crash on Seixas’ preparations for the main event. “Sometimes, we learn faster through pain,” Jurdie told L’Équipe. 

There were certainly plenty of lessons for Seixas here, but perhaps also for his team and their handling of their precious talent. Although Seixas limited his losses to a little over a minute on the Grand Colombier after his crash on Saturday, he confessed afterwards that the wounds to his hands and elbow had made it difficult to grip the handlebars, especially on descents.

Yet despite that glaring issue and even though his Tour debut was just three weeks away, Decathlon still didn’t see fit to withdraw the 19-year-old from the race for his own protection. He had already proven his toughness the previous day, after all, but overall victory was also surely beyond him by then. What more was there to gain by forcing the issue here? 

Seixas started the final stage, telling reporters in Beaufort that “nothing is impossible,” but he was quickly in difficulty on the Col du Pré. Smartly, the decision was taken to pull the pin on the Dauphiné there rather than attempt to struggle through to the finish. The potential for additional damage was swiftly limited.

Still, it raised a question about the decision-making processes at Decathlon. One assumes Seixas himself was eager to ride, of course, and that’s understandable, even admirable. But it’s less clear if anybody in management feels in a position to overrule him, especially when Decathlon are still trying to ward off interest from UAE Team Emirates-XRG and others.

Seixas himself, it must be said, showed his ability to absorb lessons quickly when he spoke with reporters after his crash on Saturday. He was awarded the Prix de la Combativité for his efforts in chasing back on, but he preferred to lament his own naivety rather than celebrate his combativity.

“I just made a silly mistake, it’s entirely my fault, and I apologise to the lads around me who I could have caused to crash as well,” Seixas said. “I took a corner badly. I tried to take the outside line, I thought the lads weren’t coming round fast enough, but in fact I went into the bend far too fast.”

Although Seixas ultimately lost the Dauphiné on Saturday, his fall, his fightback, his defiant limiting of losses on the final climb and even his assured media performance after the finish all served to underscore his longer-term credentials as a Grand Tour contender. There are no doubts about his mentality or his force of character, just as there is no argument about his talent.

There is, however, still reason to question the haste with which he is being thrown into the Tour, and perhaps even the way in which he has been preparing for the big event. Altitude camps have become de rigueur for Tour contenders in the 21st century, but even by the standards of the era, Seixas’ 2026 preparation has been striking

Seixas already spent a long stint at altitude at Sierra Nevada before the season even began. “It's been two months since I last saw my parents and my girlfriend,” Seixas told RMC in February ahead of the Volta ao Algarve.

Another training block, this time around his home in Nice, followed between Strade Bianche and Itzulia Basque Country, but Seixas returned to Sierra Nevada in May for another eyewatering stint at altitude, where he reportedly clocked up some 48,000m of total climbing. He also found time to perform a Tour recon with a Strava KOM on the Tourmalet for good measure. 

After that workload, perhaps it was only to be expected that Seixas would look a touch sluggish early in the Dauphiné. He was caught out and lost a clutch of seconds on the first stage, and he was solid but unspectacular in the team time trial. 

The true verdict, of course, would only ever come in the three mountain stages that concluded the week, and Seixas’ crash makes it impossible to draw any real conclusions. He performed very well indeed on the first summit finish at Crest-Voland, gradually toasting everyone bar Isaac del Toro off his wheel, but the effects of his crash meant the anticipated duel with the Mexican never materialised. 

Missing out on Dauphiné victory was never going to be a real setback for Seixas given that it would at least serve to dial down some of the more fervent home expectations for July. But being forced out of the race by a heavy crash is another matter, and it remains to be seen just how much the effects will weigh on his build-up to the Tour.

It was already in the plan for Seixas to take three days off after the Dauphiné before resuming altitude training with a team camp at Les Arcs 1950 from June 18-23, followed by four days of stage recons. 

It’s not yet clear if Seixas will be able to stick completely to that schedule, but there were optimistic noises from the Decathlon camp. “A fall like the one he suffered on Saturday, at around 70 km/h, takes a real toll on his energy levels, and he’ll need a few days’ rest before resuming his preparations for the Tour de France,” said team doctor Jacky Maillot.

Ultimately, the Dauphiné told us little new about Seixas’ Tour prospects. The rider’s potential and personality were already familiar, but the understandable questions over a 19-year-old’s true readiness to take on the three weeks of the Tour as a GC contender remain.

Marc Madiot was always cautious in his handling of young riders when managing FDJ, and he only reluctantly allowed Thibaut Pinot to make his Tour debut as a 22-year-old in 2012. Although he recognised that Seixas looks far more comfortable in the media glare as a teenager than Pinot did as a veteran, Madiot expressed some concerns about his approach to the Tour.

“He’s learning, but the problem with learning is that he’s thrown in at the deep end before he’s even finished splashing around,” Madiot told RMC on Sunday, contrasting the fast-tracking of Seixas with the more gradual approach UAE have taken with Del Toro.

“Paul Seixas and Isaac Del Toro represent two very different worlds. Del Toro is all about management, development and putting things in place for the next Tour. Seixas is all fire and passion. He’s inspiring, but I can see him expending an enormous amount of energy.”

But Madiot, who has also admiringly compared Seixas with Bernard Hinault, knows that’s all part of the appeal too. 

In the end, maybe the Dauphiné told us plenty about Seixas and the Tour. No matter how it pans out, it’s destined to be dramatic. Buckle up.