Paul Seixas has enjoyed an incredile first year senior - with World Tour team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale - and now the 19-year-old has celebrated his exploits with a monster training ride in the French and Swiss Alps.
Seixas, the junior TT world champion last season, started his effort at 3am yesterday, riding 323.65km in 12 hours 18 minutes with almost 8,200m of elevation gain thrown in for good measure.
He even set a new KOM on the Grand Saint-Bernard, riding the 34km ascent in a time of 1:44:16; the same climb Irish riders Jamie Meehan (Cofidis) and Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) did so well on at Giro Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc (2.2U) in July.
Related News
Seixas also tackled the climbs of Petit Saint-Bernard, Col des Saisies, Cormet de Roselend and Col de la Forclaz during his ride on Sunday which he said was "finishing off the season well" as he posted his ride on Strava.
Advertisement
The teenager is the latest to emerge as France's next big hope of winning the Tour de France. The French Grand Tour was last won by a Frenchman in 1985, when Bernard Hinault took his fifth and final victory in the race.
Seixas jumped from the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale U19 junior team last season into the World Tour line-up this year. He finished 2nd on two stages at Tour of the Alps (2.Pro), 8th overall at Critérium du Dauphiné (2.UWT) and won Tour de l'Avenir (2.Ncup), which was his only U23 race of the year despite not turning 19 until last month.
He rounded off his season with silver in the mixed TTT at the Worlds in Rwanda, where he was also 13th in a brutal men's road race. He then took 3rd in the Europeans road race - behind Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) and Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) - before taking 7th at Il Lombardia.
