At only 19 years old, Paul Seixas has just won his first professional victory at the Tour of the Algarve. In front of the leaders of the peloton, the Lyonnais confirmed his status as a precocious phenomenon and potential future winner of the Tour de France. Decryption
Published on: 02/20/2026 - 3:51 p.m. Modified on: 02/20/2026 - 4:04 p.m.
A first victory for history. Frenchman Paul Seixas, 19 years, 4 months and 25 days old, won his first professional victory on Thursday February 19 during the second stage of the Tour of the Algarve, at the top of Alto da Foia.
Tell me who you beat and I'll tell you who you are, as they say in cycling. However, for his first success, the rider from the Decathlon CMA CGM team skillfully surpassed the Spaniard Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) and the Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), two of the stars of the peloton.
Announced as the "chosen one" of French cycling, the one who will bring the Tour de France back into the French fold for the first time since Bernard Hinault in 1985, Paul Seixas continues, race after race, to confirm all his potential. But why does the Lyonnais arouse so much enthusiasm?
Precocity in the service of history: records already broken
“For well-born souls, value does not wait for the number of years.” Corneille's maxim, remastered in "Me, you don't talk to me about age" by Kylian Mbappé, also applies to Paul Seixas. He is now the youngest French professional race winner since Jacques Anquetil in 1953, subsequently a five-time winner of the Tour de France.
Heralded as a crack player since his teenage years, Paul Seixas signed his first professional contract with the Decathlon team in September 2024, without going through "development" training. It must be said that that year, for his last year in the junior circuit, he multiplied his exploits, notably winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Giro della Lunigiana (general classification, by points and that of the mountain).
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And, for his first season among the pros in 2025, he also broke more than one precocity record. After his performance at the Dauphiné, he is now the youngest rider since 1962 to finish in the top 10 of a World Tour event. With the Tour of Lombardy, he is also the youngest rider since 1917 to finish in the top 10 of a Monument
On the podium behind Evenepoel and Pogacar
In addition to these precocious records, Paul Seixas has also stood out on multiple occasions, and in the good sense of the word. In August, he won the Tour de l'Avenir, a miniature version of the Tour de France for hopefuls. This prestigious race counts among its former winners: Egan Bernal, Tadej Pogacar, Nairo Quintana, Isaac del Toro…
For his first selections for the French senior team, he successively finished 13th in the World Championships in Rwanda, on what remains one of the hardest courses in history, then 3rd in the European Championships, behind Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.
Read alsoRwanda: successful World Cycling Championships but an uncertain future
“It’s a third place, it’s not a victory, I know that very well, but it had a bit of a taste of victory when you see the two guys in front,” he declared after this extraordinary performance at 19 years old.
His victory on Thursday at Alto da Foia can also be seen as a sign for the most superstitious: it is the same place that Tadej Pogacar won his first bouquet among the pros in 2019, at the age of 20.
The mind of a veteran in the body of an adolescent
His first victory among the pros also demonstrates a certain knowledge of racing. He did not react to the provocations of Almeida who, in experience, tried to intimidate him to take the wheel of Ayuso. Paul Seixas stood back, giving him space and letting the two men explain themselves. Taking advantage of the return of a teammate, he followed the tempo then adjusted the group to a sprint by cutting the corner 150 m from the finish line in the right place.
Far from the carelessness attributed to youth, Paul Seixas strikes with an almost monastic discipline which stands out in the peloton. Where many neo-pros discover the rigor of the high level, the Lyonnais seems to have integrated it since childhood: nutrition, data work, massive training loads... He handles it all with the rigor of a veteran.
And, faced with a country quick to get excited about a possible successor to Bernard Hinault, he welcomes his label of "messiah" of French cycling with disconcerting phlegm, while assuming his status.
Despite his very young age, he is already a leader in the Decathlon collective and knows how to make friends. Indeed, his first victory could have come much earlier, on April 25, 2025 at the Tour des Alpes. That day, in Lienz in Austria, he found himself alone in the lead alongside his teammate Nicolas Prodhomme. And the young kid preferred to leave the victory to his 28-year-old elder to thank him for the work accomplished: "It's so wonderful. Nicolas deserves it, he worked so hard all week. It's an immense source of pride. I spoke to Nico about it, the team wanted me to win but I said no. Nico deserved it more than me! I know that I will still improve, I will undoubtedly have other opportunities to go for them", promised Paul Seixas.
By offering his first victory to his elder, he undoubtedly gave himself a lieutenant for life.
Mountain, time trial, leader: a complete runner
If Paul Seixas arouses so much enthusiasm, it is because he ticks all the boxes that make him a future grand tour winner. In addition to his leadership qualities already explained, he has already shown that he is an outstanding climber and rider.
Indeed, at 1.84 m and 61 kg, it has the ideal profile to perform in the mountains, a sine qua non condition for conquering podiums on a Grand Tour. Whether at the Dauphiné Libéré, the Tour of Lombardy or the European Championships, he demonstrated that he was already competing with the greatest despite his enormous margin of improvement.
However, where it differs from the previous generation is that this is coupled with undeniable driving qualities. Unlike Romain Bardet who was uncomfortable with the exercise, he also excelled in time trials.
The Tour de France, 2030 objective for Decathlon
"To compete with Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates? That's the objective, that's the ambition. It's a real construction, we see that from year to year, the team has evolved significantly. And in the strategic plan, from 2026, we are going to have ambitions that we will present later because they will be quite innovative. But above all, the 2030 objective is to win the Tour de France."
When Dominique Serieys, the boss of Decathlon-CMA CGM, made this declaration in July 2025, it was thinking of his raw talent who will be responsible for carrying the ambitious French team in the coming years, with the crowning achievement of a Tour de France by 2030.
Also read Cycling: who is Paul Magnier, the young French sprint prodigy?
But beyond his team, Paul Seixas risks finding himself propelled at the head of a new French generation which has fangs: Paul Magnier in the sprints, the charismatic Kevin Vauquelin, the puncher Romain Grégoire, the pocket climber Lenny Martinez... All are under 25 and hungry for victories.
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