Cyclist
‘The harder it is, the better’: Interview with Paul Seixas, the next great French hope
It has become a rite of passage for any talented French youngster to be tagged with the burden of being the new French hope for Tour de France glory. 18-year-old Paul Seixas is the latest to carry this heavy weight on his young shoulders.
Still a fresh-faced teenager, the Frenchman has garnered attention after a scintillating year in the junior ranks that saw the Lyonnais climber win a host of French races as well as the junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a gold medal at the 2024 UCI Road World Championships. By securing a three-year deal with Decathlon-AG2R’s senior team, Seixas will become the youngest rider on the WorldTour level in 2025.
Cyclist spoke with Paul Seixas to discuss his pathway to cycling, the pressures of being the next French hope and why he chose Decathlon-AG2R over UAE Team Emirates.
Against the family grain
Born in Lyon’s seventh arrondissement in 2006, Seixas began life in France’s third-biggest city, but came to cycling once he’d left.
‘I spent the first 12 years of my life there,’ he says. ‘I even started racing my bike in Lyon. But as you can imagine it’s quite hard to train in a city the size of Lyon. Then at around 13 years old, we moved to Anse, near Villefranche-sur-Saône. That’s where I took cycling more seriously – we were out in the country, it’s safer and the roads are better suited for riding. Beaujolais isn’t that well known, but it’s got great roads for training and some good climbs as well. That certainly helped motivate me, particularly when I was young.’
Growing up in the wine-making region of Beaujolais to the north of Lyon, he took to cycling thanks to his grandfather’s interest in the Tour de France. After dabbling with other sports, cycling eventually piqued his interest.
‘I watched the Tour de France with my grandpa, but no one else in my family was into cycling. My parents practised karate – my Dad even competed – so they were a little surprised that I wanted to try out cycling. They weren’t convinced at first, but after a few years they eventually let me sign up for a cycling club. I started on the track in Parc de la Tête d’Or [Lyon’s biggest park] because the roads were too busy in the city centre,’ he says.
‘I trained on my own to begin with when we moved out to Anse. My Dad helped me sometimes, but that was before it all got professionalised and I was assigned a trainer, which was a bit strange initially. From there, it’s been an upward learning curve, even until now. It’s interesting for me because my family and I didn’t know anything about professional cycling. We’ve been learning every day.’
Speaking of his family, Seixas’s Portuguese-language surname has attracted some interest from Iberian fans who have been hoping to claim the Frenchman as one of their own.
‘There are some Portuguese roots on my Dad’s side. My great-grandfather was of Portuguese origin. We don’t quite know where exactly he came from, there’s no family tree to trace that back, but we’re trying to find out more about the Portuguese side of the family. I don’t speak Portuguese though, not at all. I tried learning German but it was a bit of a failure. It’s only English and French for the moment, it’s too complicated beyond that.’
Despite his humility surrounding his language abilities, Seixas is keen to carry on his studies regardless of his cycling ambitions.
‘I’m studying a Global BBA degree in business studies at EMLyon. I signed up for a special talent programme designed for athletes. There aren’t many schools that’ll facilitate something like this for pro-level athletes, so this is an ideal course for me,’ he shares. ‘I’ve been doing a lot of my learning remotely. We have an online seminar every Monday and around six hours of video lectures each week. That’s enough to keep me going through the week, but I don’t want to speak too soon – I haven’t done any big races yet, so we’ll see how it goes next season.’
An all-rounder with clear GC talent
This year Seixas emerged as one of the brightest sparks within Decathlon-AG2R’s NextGen squad, winning on a mix of races, including mountain stages, one-day races and time-trials. His most notable win in Decathlon-AG2R colours came in the spring at the junior’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but he has translated his broad range of skills into stage racing on the under-19 level.
‘Fundamentally, I’m a climber,’ Seixas says. ‘I’m training to be an all-rounder at the moment. I’m doing a bit of everything and working across all terrains. I have to also bear in mind that positioning is vital. If you’re well placed in the peloton, you can be in the mix on all types of profiles. In the future though, I’ll probably develop into a GC rider. Time-trialing and climbing are my two biggest strengths so it’ll be essential to continue working on those.’
When pushed to compare himself to a rider in the current WorldTour field, he is hesitant.
‘There are so many different types of rider profiles in the peloton. I’d say I’m close to the Pogačar-type but with less speed than him,’ he says. ‘I prefer hillier races, those suited to climbers. The harder it is, the better.’
Chasing rainbows
After a season often spent on the top step of the junior podium, Seixas carried his form into the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich. The teenager claimed the rainbow jersey in the junior time-trial ahead of Belgians Jasper Schoofs and Matisse Van Kerckhove, becoming the first French man to claim this title.
‘It was incredible, I don’t have the words to describe that day,’ he says. ‘To be honest, I don’t quite know how I did it. There were some big opponents this year at the Worlds. It’s the World Championships after all, it’s always going to be the toughest race out there. I was feeling great that day and I had the right preparation coming into the race. I just made the most of it.’
On the run-up to the World Championships in September, Seixas revealed that he would train ‘two to four times a week on the time-trial bike’. Along with his world title, Sexias also holds the French juniors title against the clock.
‘I don’t quite know at the moment if I’ll end up focussing on time-trials next year. For now, I just want to get stuck in with any time-trial and try to reach my highest level. Of course, time-trials — like anything in the sport — go through constant progression. Time-trialing technology is elevated at the WorldTour level compared to the juniors. There’s plenty for me to work on and I hope that can help me become one of the best.’
‘It’s not a decision to be taken lightly’: Seixas on choosing Decathlon-AG2R over UAE Team Emirates
On the back of his gold medal in Zurich, Seixas signed a three-year deal with the senior Decathlon-AG2R team. It’s a natural choice for the Frenchman after having spent two seasons with Decathlon’s junior wing. The deal wasn’t secured without some interest from the very top WorldTour teams, however.
‘It was actually quite complicated securing a WorldTour contract,’ he says. ‘Lots of teams reached out: Soudal-QuickStep, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates, Groupama-FDJ and Lidl-Trek among others. It’s not a bad selection of teams.
‘Some were trying to get hold of me for a long time and some made contact later into the season, but as a whole there was a lot of interest, which was quite affirming.
‘However, I had to take a step back and remind myself which team helped me since the start. Then it became clear that I had to stay with Decathlon-AG2R. I realised that staying with a familiar team and environment was better than getting a bigger paycheque elsewhere. I had a great experience with them as a junior and they’ve helped develop me to this point. I want to continue this upward journey.’
In accepting this new deal, Seixas turned down interest from UAE Team Emirates, the number one ranked team in the UCI rankings over the past two seasons. The squad fronted by Tadej Pogačar have signed several strong junior and under-23 riders in recent years, including the likes of Pablo Torres and Isaac del Toro.
‘Of course, UAE Team Emirates are the number one team. Will they still be in a couple of years? We don’t know. I’m still young and to stand out in a team like that wouldn’t be easy. Even when these big teams – you know, the kind of teams you dream of riding for – contacted me, it was a tough choice to make. It’s not a decision that should be taken lightly either.
‘At those moments though you’ve got to listen to yourself and I couldn’t ignore the fact that AG2R had been there with me from the start. The senior team had a great 2024 season and they’ve been making a lot of positive changes over the past year. That sign of progression was something that really spoke to me.
‘I believe I made the right choice.’
Riding ‘the Remco wave’ from the junior level to the WorldTour
Seixas’s promotion onto the top division follows a trend amongst WorldTour teams of signing young talent on multi-year contracts. By jumping straight up onto the WorldTour level in his teenage years, he becomes yet another rider to receive a fast-track past under-23, a tendency influenced by the success of Remco Evenepoel, who did the same in 2019.
‘I think cycling on the junior level has been evolving for some years now – since the era of Remco, I guess. Riders are now maturing quicker and the level is increasing alongside that. We don’t have the same volume of races, but we’re posting better performance numbers in tests. The way data is recorded and analysed is also improving. This means that the stronger riders are getting identified and promoted at a younger level.
‘What we’re also seeing now is a gap between riders on development teams and guys who aren’t. If you’re not signed up to a development squad from a young age, it’s difficult and very expensive. If you don’t have a team helping you to, for instance, develop a time-trial position or buy specific equipment, it can be very costly.’
When January rolls around, Seixas will be 18 years and three months old. That will make him the youngest rider on the WorldTour in 2025. With this mantle, there are sure to be some extra eyes on him.
‘It’s impressive to be the youngest rider on the WorldTour. At the moment though, I’m just trying to build some experience. It’s all new to me, so I’m hoping that being by their [the WorldTour riders’] side will help me progress to an even higher level.’
‘I don’t want to bother myself with what people say’
The 18-year-old’s world title, youth results and teenage promotion onto the WorldTour garnered attention from plenty of pundits in the cycling sphere. Historically, the French cycling press has placed a lot of pressure on the shoulders of riders like Seixas in the hope of identifying the next French Tour de France winner. Next year will mark 50 years since the last one. Needless to say, the French are hungry for more.
‘People jumped on board and said plenty of things after the World Championships. Some expectations were already growing throughout the year, but I didn’t want to bother myself with what they were saying about me. I don’t really look at what people write about me in the press. It’s positive to read, of course, but I don’t want to waste time getting caught up in that and lose sight of my own objectives. I just want to concentrate on myself, grow as a rider and light up the races I’m in.’
When it comes to answering the call of becoming a future Tour champion, Seixas holds a pragmatic approach.
‘Of course, I want to ride the Tour de France. That’s a childhood dream of mine. I’m not quite on that level yet but I’m close. That gives me something to work towards,’ he says. ‘My dream would be to win the Tour de France, just like any French cyclist out there. I hope that one day I’ll have it in my legs to be a player at the Tour. For the moment, however, I’ve just got to keep progressing to get closer to that level.’
‘I’m excited to ride with the guys I’ve seen on TV’
With the new year looming, Seixas will soon be an official rider on Decathlon-AG2R’s senior team. With that, he will be among a 30-man roster that includes Tour de France stage winners Felix Gall, Sam Bennett and fellow Lyonnais rider Victor Lafay.
‘There are plenty of great riders at Decathlon-AG2R at the moment. I’m excited to ride with Benoît Cosnefroy, Sam Bennett – you know, the guys I’ve watched on TV. To be riding alongside them in a couple of months will be cool.
‘I’ve met some of my future teammates already. We had an immersion camp with the WorldTour team at the end of October. We were split up on that trip so I didn’t have the chance to ride with them there. We have two big training camps coming up in Spain, so I’ll get to ride alongside them then.’
Seixas is yet to find out his schedule for the new season, however he’s quick to point out that ‘it’s a little too early’ for him to be sent to a Grand Tour given his age.
‘I don’t have my programme yet for the new season, but I’ll probably end up in more climbing-focussed races. That said, I also want to ride a wide variety of races and gain some experience regardless. Apart from that, it’s down to the team. I’m looking forward to seeing how I get used to it all.’
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