'We’ll say we were there' - Seixas’ Basque win leaves even his own team searching for words

Also within the team, there was little doubt about who the race had revolved around. It wasn’t just the dominance he had shown, but how easily a 19-year-old had become the rider everyone else worked for.

“For us, it was completely normal,” teammate Aurélien Paret-Peintre told Eurosport. “With his level and the way he leads, there’s no discussion.”

Seixas had not arrived as the outright favourite in the Basque Country, but his performances at Strade Bianche and the Volta ao Algarve made it intriguing to see how he would measure up against Florian Lipowitz, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

It didn’t take the young Frenchman long to take control of the race. He struck in the opening time trial, putting Primož Roglič 28 seconds back as his closest rival, a margin that hinted at what was to come over the rest of the week.

“That surprised me,” Paret-Peintre said of his time trial performance. “Those are big numbers.”

The decisive moment came on stage two, on the climb to San Miguel de Aralar. The move had been mapped out in advance. Teammates set the tempo, Seixas waited for the steepest section, and when he went, the race split.

“We knew where it had to happen,” said Nicolas Prodhomme. “It played out exactly like that.”

Riders expected to be in the mix, including Florian Lipowitz and Isaac del Toro, were distanced within minutes. By the finish, the gap had done most of the damage.

But even with the leader’s jersey firmly on his shoulders, the 19-year old-kept looking for opportunities to gain more time.

Nicolas Prodhomme admitted he occasionally had to rein him in. “He wants to go every time,” he said. “You have to manage that.”

Away from the race, the change has been just as noticeable. Seixas has begun to speak up more in team meetings, taking on responsibility despite being one of the youngest in the group.

“He’s still learning that side of it,” Paret-Peintre said. “But it’s coming.”

What stands out most is how little it seems to affect him. Over the course of the week, there were no signs of tension. “He’s very calm,” Paret-Peintre added. “Nothing really gets to him.”

Even among staff who have seen it all before, the reaction went beyond routine praise. Speaking on The Cycling Show, sports director Heinrich Haussler admitted he struggled to describe what he was seeing.

“I don’t have words. I’m speechless,” he said.

Haussler still tried to put into words what makes Seixas stand out. “The way he rides, how he moves in the peloton, the decisions in the final… for a 19-year-old, it’s exceptional.”

The German-Australian sports director also admitted that the presence of the young Frenchman is already shaping the way the team approaches races. With Seixas at the start, the objective is no longer simply to be present. “When you have a rider like that, everyone knows why you’re there,” Haussler said. “You’re there to win.”

Where it leads is harder to say. The performances have set a very promising marker, but the ceiling is still unclear. “We don’t know where it ends,” Prodhomme said. “But later on, we’ll be able to say we were there.”