'I Didn't Want to Put All My Cards on the Table': Paul Seixas Starts the Mind Games Ahead of Road Worlds

Remco Evenepoel, Paul Seixas, and Isaac del Toro went to the GP Québec and GP Montréal to test their legs for the Canadian road worlds.

The Grands Prix duly delivered the insights they wanted and rubber-stamped them as favorites for a world championship blown open by the absence of Tadej Pogačar.

Seixas botched his sprint at GP Montréal but is quietly bullish about winning an elite world title aged 20.

Evenepoel won GP Québec so emphatically he could debut a bizarre new celebration, but said a bus ride beat him down at GP Montréal.

And Del Toro? Everyone started calling him the favorite for road worlds after he won GP Montréal, but he’s having none of it.

Here’s what these three rainbow jersey hopefuls said after GP Québec and Monréal as they build toward road worlds:

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe / Belgium)

Plenty of excuses, plenty of expectations
GP Québec: 1st
GP Montréal: 5th

Remco Evenepoel came out swinging in his Canadian double.

At GP Montréal on Friday, “Golden Remco” lit up the decisive attack before he outsprinted Giulio Ciccone at the line. He was so unflustered he had time to debut his bizarre new “monocle” celebration.

There was no double delight for Evenepoel on Sunday, however. The 26-year-old couldn’t hang with the decisive moves on the decisive final lap and had to make do with fifth.

Evenepoel’s rainbow jersey campaign begins in less than a week when he defends his title this Sunday at the men’s elite time trial. He will, of course, also be back for the road race.

What Evenepoel said:

Evenepoel was charactersically blunt when he told Wielerflits and the massed media Sunday he was pooped after traveling from Europe, racing in Québec, and then transferring to Montréal.

“I didn’t feel good in the final. I think I hadn’t really recovered from Quebec and the journey on Saturday. But it’s better to have a bad day today than in two weeks,” Evenepoel said. “You shouldn’t underestimate the fatigue. Especially with the little time we have and the amateurish journey we have to make between the two races [riders had to make the transfer between Quebec and Montreal by bus, a journey that takes about 3 hours under normal circumstances – ed].

“But anyway, that applies to everyone. I just didn’t feel really good. I’m never really good in wet weather either. And I’m still fifth. If this was a bad day, it’s not very bad.

“I am not drawing any conclusions from this. In two weeks, it will be another sixty kilometers longer, I think. Then it will be a very different race, with much more fatigue,” Evenepoel said Sunday.

And what about that weird celebration in Québec?

“I wanted something new. The phone call celebration [made famous at the Paris Olympics – ed] is something I copied. I had to look for a gesture that is mine,” Evenepoel told HLN on Friday.

“I thought about it for a month with Oumi. We decided this morning on a phone call. Hopefully, it will become my signature celebration … although I don’t know if it looked good.”

And no, the gesture doesn’t have some special meaning.

“I still need to think about that carefully,” Evenepoel told HLN. “I was able to carry it out, that is the most important thing.”

Paul Seixas: (Decathlon CMA CGM / France)

No victories, but winning the mind games
GP Québec: 17th
GP Montréal: 2nd

Paul Seixas was all over the front of the race at GP Québec, but came away unrewarded. The 19-year-old was active in all the chase moves in the final 40km on Friday but couldn’t do enough to bridge back in time to contest the win.

Seixas didn’t miss out two days later in Montréal.

The French teenager forced the decisive attack of the day Sunday but was caught out by Del Toro in the final sprint.

What Seixas said:

Seixas admitted some rookie errors when he spoke at the finish in Montréal on Sunday.

“I had a moment of inattention when I was trying to see how close the chasers were. I couldn’t spot the 200-meter sign, and just like that, he [Del Toro] took off,” Seixas told reporters at the finish. “He caught me by surprise and played it really well. In the end, he was simply stronger, so that’s how it goes.”

Seixas added he was maybe too aggressive in the frantic final of Montréal. He won’t make the same mistakes when he returns to the same hills in the race for the rainbow jersey.

“I made efforts everywhere, but tactically it wasn’t always good. I have to work on that. But I was here to make mistakes and see how it would go,” he said Sunday.

“Anyway, I don’t want to put all my cards on the table before worlds. If you played all your cards on Sunday [at GP Montréal], the competition knows what you are going to do. That’s why I want to keep a few things to myself.”

Isaac del Toro: (UAE Emirates-XRG / Mexico)

Avoiding all expectation
GP Québec: 55th
GP Montréal: 1st

Isaac del Toro went AWOL in the final hour of racing at GP Québec and finished distinctly mid-pack.

“Torito” made his presence well felt in Montréal, however.

The Mexican ace showed all his canny and race craft on Sunday by tracking Paul Seixas’ haymaker attack at 12km to go and outpunching young Paul in the final sprint.

What Del Toro said:

The GP Montréal on Sunday was hailed as the ultimate test for the world championship road race. The race for rainbows on September 27 borrows many parts of the Grand Prix’s parcours.

However, Del Toro was quick to downplay any speculation that his win on Sunday promoted him to top favorite for the world title.

“Sometimes we are human beings. Not every day will be super,” Del Toro said Sunday in his winner’s interview.

“I’m not going to say I’m a favorite. This is still cycling,” Del Toro later told reporters in his press conference. “A lot can change in two weeks, You can catch illness or suddenly not feel at your best during a match. Ultimately, we are only human. Not every day can be great.”

Del Toro admitted he wasn’t feeling like a potential world champion at either Québec or Montréal.

That he still went and won on Sunday should be considered a warning shot to all his rivals.

“You saw in the Quebec GP that I wasn’t that good. I didn’t feel super good on Sunday either,” Del Toro said. “The feeling isn’t what I had hoped for, to be honest.”