Many lines of copy have been written about French teen sensation Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) over the past few months – much of it predicting world domination at some point in the future. While the sceptics might be tempted to brush those predictions off as so much media hype, it's worth pointing out that the media is not alone.
Tadej Pogačar is the latest to throw his hat into the Seixas cheerleading ring, following a Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday in which he was pushed all the way by the young Frenchman, with Pogačar eventually dropping Seixas on the final climb.
He said he expected Seixas to continue improving until he eventually "destroys everybody" – although it feels as though he has the measure of just about everybody already, the Slovenian excepted.
"Having Paul entering such a big field at such a good level already at 19, it brings motivation to everybody else now to keep trying to improve," said Pogacar, as reported by France24. "Because, again, he's 19 now and normally your body physically is the best at 26 to 30 years old.
"So, we'll see. We keep working hard to still try to fight for the next years to win as much as we can until he destroys everybody!"
In turn Seixas poured praise on Pogačar, calling him "the greatest rider of all time". Asked what he needed to do to beat him, he said: "Power! That seems obvious," said Seixas. "I just have to improve but we can see his level, it's extremely difficult to follow him. He's the greatest rider of all time."
He added: "There's more work to do but that's normal. You can't skip the steps so we'll just be satisfied with that today," he said of his runner-up place in the Ardennes Monument.
Liège was not the first time that Pogačar and Seixas have gone toe to toe at the end of a major hilly race this season. At Strade Bianche, Seixas was the last to be dropped by Pogačar before he embarked on what turned out to be 79km solo break to win. The French rider then went on to better Pogačar's team-mate Isaac Del Toro in the run-in to Siena.
Liège saw Seixas fare even better, hanging with the Slovenian after he attacked on La Redoute at 35km to go, and only meeting his match on the final climb, the Roche aux Faucons, with 14km to the line.
