Pogačar Is Out and French Teen Phenom Paul Seixas Wants the Crown

Tadej Pogačar is sidelined, the rainbow jersey is suddenly up for grabs, and a half the peloton can sense the opening.

That’s the mood heading into the big block of Canadian racing that includes this weekend’s Grand Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal and the UCI road cycling world championships later this month.

Paul Seixas — who turns 20 on September 20 — might be first in line in a peloton full of dreamers to fill the Pogi void.

The French phenom returns to competition Friday at the GP de Québec, his first race since his stunning fourth place at the Tour de France.

“I’m very motivated,” Seixas told journalists in Québec. “It won’t be easy because there’s a lot of competition. It’s good to be able to gauge myself against them. It will be a good test to validate my preparation.”

Friday’s Québec race might not suit him as much as the much tougher, Liège-style GP de Montréal on Sunday.

Then everything points toward the world championships, with the elite men’s time trial on September 20 and the road race one week later on September 27.

Seixas is a diving straight back into cycling’s deep end, and with his growing self-confidence, that’s just the way he likes it.

Seixas steps straight back into the fire

Seixas has not raced since July, but he’s raring to go.

He spent the first two weeks after the Tour de France recovering and reconnecting with family and friends, while the cycling world dissected his Tour debut.

With the French media documenting his every move, he resumed heavy training during a 10-day altitude camp at Les Arcs in the French Alps, when he was dropping huge training rides on Strava.

The Tour changed him and he knows it.

Seixas left Paris just one place off the podium in a Tour debut that keeps looking better and better. Perhaps it missed a big stage win or the white jersey, but fourth at 19 only confirms his talent.

“Now I have more confidence in myself,” Seixas told L’Equipe. “I know that at my best, I can be competitive against the best.”

Québec will give him a low-pressure chance to get back into racing rhythm on a course that on paper suits others.

Sunday’s Montréal features way more climbing and longer distances that make it a race of attrition.

“Quebec is quite open, for puncheurs. I know what the race is like,” he said. “Montreal is different, and it certainly suits me better. When it’s more about power, it’s better for me. Montreal will be more advantageous for my profile.”

A rainbow jersey suddenly up for grabs

Pogačar’s absence from the UCI road worlds changes everything.

Not only for Seixas, but for everyone else in the peloton. Remco Evenepoel, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and the list goes on.

Instead of racing to win a record-tying third title, the Slovenian is out for the remainder of 2026 after fracturing his collarbone and suffering a concussion in his Vuelta a España crash.

Without cycling’s dominant rider casting a shadow over the worlds, there is no overwhelming favorite and no single wheel everyone must follow.

Seixas knows it’s perhaps the opportunity of the decade, especially with Pogačar committed to race through 2032.

“Obviously, it will change the complexion of the race because, as we’ve seen for years, he’s truly the boss,” Seixas said of worlds. “His presence alone is enough to transform the race.”

Seixas has learned first-hand how Pogačar dictates how everyone else races. He clashed with Pogi at Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège this spring.

Montréal will be very different without the Slovenian superstar.

“Usually, you have to think about how to race against him,” Seixas said. “You watch when he attacks and simply try to get on his wheel. His absence changes the complexion of the race, which is now more open.”

Chasing rainbows

The world championships cap an exceptional breakout season loaded with milestones for Seixas. He claimed his first professional win at the Volta ao Algarve, added a first WorldTour GC title at Itzulia Basque Country, and roared to victory at La Flèche Wallonne.

And he went toe-to-toe with Pogačar with second at both Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

And that all came before he rode to a remarkable fourth place at the Tour de France.

Seixas already tasted the brutality of the worlds last year, finishing 13th in Kigali after Pogačar attacked with 66km to go to solo to victory and only 30 riders finished.

Montréal should suit the more mature and deeper Seixas even better.

“I like to always have new goals and ambitions. Even after I had driven the Tour, I immediately had goals that followed. That’s what keeps me moving forward,” he said. “There is energy and there is willpower. That’s exactly what you need at the end of a season. And I’m very motivated.”

It won’t be easy.

Seixas proved with second place at Liège that he can handle the monument distance and attrition the worlds will demand.

Even without King Pog, however, he must still fend off proven winners with equally fierce ambitions, including former world champs Evenepoel and Van der Poel.

France has waited since Bernard Hinault in 1985 for another French winner of the Tour. That’s the burden that Seixas and every generation that’s come before him has had to carry.

France’s record at the world championships is far better.

Julian Alaphilippe delivered the latest wins with consecutive elite men’s road titles in 2020 and 2021.

Now Seixas arrives in Canada with very good odds of adding another page of French cycling history.

A rainbow jersey would fit just as nicely as a yellow one.