The seemingly irresistible rise of Paul Seixas to the highest levels of the sport took what was arguably its biggest step yet this week in the Itzulia Basque Country as the 19-year-old Frenchman conquered his first WorldTour stage wins - three of them - and the overall in one fell swoop.
Having crushed the opposition on the opening two days in succession and in very different disciplines of a time trial and a high mountain stage, the Decathlon CMA CGM racer then went on to lead the Itzulia from beginning to end.
Nor was it just when he was at the top of his game that Seixas impressed, either. On stage 5, the hardest day of all, Seixas did not seem at his best, but still came through to outduel Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) for a third victory. And then on stage 6, after a mass attack by Uno-X Mobility seemingly had him up against the ropes - 'the alarm bells are starting to ring' as host broadcaster Eurosport's commentators put it - Seixas fought back alone, riding for the best part of an hour solo in atrocious weather conditions, to regain his badly frayed control of the overall.
The conclusion was simply devastating: three stages wins, the points, mountains and best young riders classifications, and the overall, by 2:30 on Tour de France podium finisher Lipowitz. The Itzulia was France's first WorldTour overall stage race win since 2007, when Christophe Moreau outpaced Cadel Evans by a scant 14 seconds to win the Criterium du Dauphiné for a second time in his career.
This was also Seixas' first WorldTour victory, too, and coming in a year when he had already taken a stage and second in the Volta ao Algarve, victory in the Faun Ardèche and second in Strade Bianche. By Saturday evening and Seixas victory in the rain-soaked town of Bergara, the vastly more experienced top young racers like Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), winner of Itzulia in 2024, and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), runner-up in the Giro d'Italia, both had abandoned Itzulia, through illness or injury. But critically, when both had quit, they were several minutes down on Seixas: even before they abandoned, then, his dominance had already been abundantly clear. All this at 19 years, six months and 18 days - making him the youngest ever winner of Itzulia Basque Country in its 65 editions and 102 years of existence to date.
"It's been an insane victory, three stage wins and the overall, we can't ask for more," Seixas told TV broadcaster EITB, "We went through some very different conditions this week, very hot and really cold and I'm just happy to see I was always there and I achieved what I wanted to do."
He explained that his toughest day, the last, he had attacked with some 53 kilometres to go out of the chase group chasing a very dangerous mass breakaway including Uno-X Mobility's Tobias Johannssen - a distant but very real threat on GC - to try and contain the threat by the Norwegian, like Seixas a former winner of the Tour de l'Avenir, and his four teammates.
"At this moment, I saw I was really strong and I didn't want to be in a bad position on a downhill, to have to take risks, so I decided to attack to keep the margin and do the downhill with no risks," Seixas explained.
"My plan was to start the downhill first and with a little gap and then they'd take me back in the end of the downhill, but then that wasn't the case and there was a big gap.
"So at this moment I was thinking I could jump across to the front, but they were very organised and I was between two groups, I lost a lot of energy.
"It was really hard because it was a long, false flat and when you are alone you spend so much just keeping the gap."
Things were looking critical, and there was much handwaving and gesturing from the Decathlon teamcar as Seixas continued his lone pursuit. But finally, he explained, he waited, and that decision proved to be the wisest, as the group spearheaded by EF Education-EasyPost gave him a much easier option to contain the GC threat of Johannsssen.
"I tried to go alone but I saw it wasn't worth it, I waited for the group. I'd wasted a lot of energy. But I was still strong and I decided to finish as strong as possible and secure the GC," he explained
With that mission accomplished, albeit with his advantage on Johannssen reduced to 2:33, Seixas could savour the biggest victory of his career to date and look at what he might do next. There's already lots of talk about the 2026 Tour de France, but so far he has preferred to keep focused on the shorter-term goals, albeit - French fans will be delighted to hear - not ruling the Tour out completely.
"We'll see after Fleche and Liège," - where, in the latter, he'll come up against one Tadej Pogačar - Seixas said.
"But I already feel like this week was really awesome. I guess we'll see next week."
So far this year, though, in any case, Seixas is already hitting the heights with jaw-dropping ease. And no matter the race, there's surely plenty more to come.
