Hard on the heels of his first professional victory at the Volta ao Algarve in February comes Paul Seixas's first WorldTour win, and it only underlined his multi-faceted talent.
While his previous wins have come in hilly road races, the 19-year-old Decathlon CMA CGM rider's victory on Monday in the stage one TT at the Itzulia Basque Country demonstrated his ability against the clock. Following a fastest time set by GC rival Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Seixas led through both time checks to take a resounding 23-second win.
A host of extremely capable riders were vanquished by the second-year French pro, including Roglič and his Tour de France podium-finishing team-mate Florian Lipowitz, and Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Speaking to his team after the race, Seixas expressed his delight and said how much he enjoyed time trialling: “I’m very happy – this is the result I was hoping for, of course, but I didn’t think I’d have such a big lead. It’s really a nice surprise. That said, I think I managed the time trial well. This is my first WorldTour victory, [in] a discipline I really love, one I’ve been working on since my junior days with my coach and my team.
Of his GC pretensions for the coming week, he added: "The race isn’t over yet; the Basque Country is a demanding event. There are five days left, with some very difficult stages, but I’m still in the running. This validates all the work I’ve put in since the start of the season and my last training camp in Nice.”
Seixas now sits at the top of the general classification of the six-stage race, which finishes on Saturday following a brace of mountain stages. He leads Vauquelin by those 23 seconds, with Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) a further three seconds back. There is a mountain stage today too – the only one of the race with a summit finish. It takes the riders 164km from Pamplona to Lekunberri, and Seixas is likely to face attacks on his lead from multiple sides.
