Teenage super-talent Paul Seixas will make his Tour de France debut this July, his team confirmed on Monday, making him the youngest rider at the race in 89 years.
Speculation has swirled for months over whether the 19-year-old Frenchman would line up in Barcelona this summer after a series of hugely impressive results, or whether his Decathlon CMA CGM squad would protect him from the weight of expectation - particularly from the French press as the home favourite - and the gruelling physical challenge of riding the Tour, the most demanding of the three Grand Tours, at such a young age.
Seixas is only in his first full season as a professional rider and has never ridden a Grand Tour, or any stage race longer than eight days. But he has made waves with some remarkable performances, winning the Itzulia Basque Country stage race in April and La Fleche Wallonne, as well as finishing second - only behind Tadej Pogacar - at Strade Bianche and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
His Basque Country triumph, when he claimed all four jerseys and won three stages, made him the first Frenchman to win a WorldTour-level stage race since Christophe Moreau won the 2007 Criterium du Dauphine.
Those results, coupled with the maturity of his performances - particularly his ability and willingness to compete with Pogacar - mean he is already being hyped as the successor to Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France, in 1985.
Decathlon had previously indicated his summer programme would be re-assessed after the Ardennes Classics, with his excellent run of results there making a Tour start all the more likely.
The team released a video of Seixas sharing the news of his plan to ride the Tour with his grandparents, with the caption, “J’ai quelque chose à vous annoncer… I have something to tell you.”
The teenager from Lyon has previously said his biggest dream is to win the Tour de France. The race starts in Barcelona on 4 July and finishes in Paris on 26 July this year.
Defending champion Pogacar lines up as the undisputed favourite after another stellar spring campaign, with his main rival Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel expected to challenge.
After Seixas’ fine start to the season Decathlon will have reason to hope for a podium finish and stage wins for the teenager, while from a more commercial perspective his participation will drive publicity for the French-based team.
