Paul Seixas Dreams, French Fans Scream as He Makes Tour Podium Push

“Seixas! Seix-as! Seix-as! Seix-as!”

Paul Seixas is making his push for the Tour de France podium — and they could probably hear the home crowd on Le Markstein all the way over in Paris.

The sound of the finish line fans cheering and banging on the advertising hoardings Saturday as he climbed the podium after stage 14 showed that Seixas-mania is growing.

He fought back to the wheel of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as he crossed the final climb, the first-category Col du Haag. Showing his zip at the finish, Seixas stuck to Isaac del Toro (Team UAE Emirates-XRG) in their three-man sprint on Le Markstein to finish third. Vingegaard was gapped and lost six seconds.

Decathlon-CMA CGM Team‘s leader Seixas was the day’s big GC leaper. He ended the day moving up two places to fourth overall, 5:19 behind leader Pogačar. He is right on the shoulder of third-placed Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who is just 15 seconds ahead.

The 19-year-old also unseated Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) from the white jersey by three seconds.

“Of course we always dream, but it’s a dream I’m living,” Seixas told media, including Velo, post-race. “And for the moment, it’s crazy.”

Steady Seixas benefits from patience

“I felt great. I want to thank the team for the work they did, they put me in the right place,” he said.

“You have to be strong in the head and then I just managed my effort. I was feeling strong. So, I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, I guess we’ll see.”

It was a ride which belied the Frenchman’s tender years and inexperience compared to his established rivals. When Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked with 11 kilometers to go, Seixas briefly followed before pacing himself.

The German might have regretted it: Lipowitz labored as Seixas accelerated minutes later, a picture of energy, after Vingegaard.

“I wanted to manage my effort. Maybe we are different types of climbers. I manage more, maybe he goes full in the start,” Seixas said.

“I honestly don’t know what he was doing, but at first, I saw ‘he follows, he’s really strong’. I just managed my effort differently. I took some time on him and he’s a really strong rider so it’s good for me.”

Pogačar pushed on by Seixas quality

Even race leader Tadej Pogačar is being kept hungry by the sport’s insanely-talented teenager. “When he followed me on La Redoute in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, I think that gave me a little bit more motivation for the Tour,” Pogačar said post-race.

“Another push. I was like ‘this young kid will give me trouble in the Tour, for sure.'”

Seixas emerged to speak to media with a white medical face mask matching his cap and new jersey. You can’t be too careful when it comes to preventing sickness on the Tour.

He had never done a race longer than eight days before this Tour. Tomorrow will be his 15th stage of racing, but it looks like so far, so good.

A Tour of discovery

“For sure, there was an unknown [element] for these two and three weeks of the race; we’re not in the third week yet, so let’s be careful,” he said.

“But you have to know too that we’re professional cyclists. We train very hard, we do training camps at altitude for three weeks and that doesn’t kill us either.”

“I’ve done more volume than last year, so I can recover better. For now, it’s ok and we’ll see the next days.”

So the big question hanging over the rest of the race after another third place: what does Seixas want from this Tour?

The white jersey, second place, or a podium spot are all within reach.

“For now, if it can continue like this, if I can have good legs, make good efforts, manage my climbing efforts well and continue to pay back the team [for their work], then I think it’s very good.”