They may not have taken the stage win, but Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale put in a demonstration on stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps, with Felix Gall taking second and Paul Seixas third just behind winner Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek).
What's even more impressive than the team 2-3 was that it was 18-year-old Seixas taking one of the top spots. Not only is the Frenchman still a teenager and only a few months into his pro career, but this race is his first-ever pro European stage race.
It's not new for Seixas to earn a top result on his first attempt: On his first race day as a professional in February, he took fifth in the GP la Marseillaise and has only continued to surprise himself.
"I didn't expect that much [from this year], but I'm really surprised and really happy to be here and to play for the win today, to be in the game," he said at the finish of stage 1. "It's so good to feel that I have the level to maybe win a stage. It's just a pleasure."
Before sprinting to third in the finale, Seixas had been active in the key moments of the stage, mixing in with the attacks on the Passo del Durone, which he conceded could have cost him something in the finish.
"Maybe yes, but I think it's the game," he said. "I wanted to try when I felt like the legs were pretty good, so no regrets today. I did my best, and third is really, really good for my first time. I think there are good things to do this week."
The fact that two teammates were both racing for the win could be seen as a tactical error but was more a symptom of how the race had gone, with no real pace-setting in the finale and Decathlon AG2R not in a position to sacrifice one rider for the other. Gall wanted to protect his GC ambitions, and the young Seixas couldn't be relied on to pace.
"It was a hard day, a good pace, but then the final was a bit special," Gall explained after the stage.
"There was no team who really took control. It was just Paul and me so for us it would have been a bit risky to set the high pace with Paul, so we had to gamble a little bit."
The team's tactics may point to some tweaks that could be made with the young Frenchman, but Seixas is also happy to be learning and racing alongside riders like Gall.
"It's really good, because I can learn a lot about them and about how they ride, how they manage to do the good results," he said.
"I'm really happy to share this with Felix and with the entire team who teaches me a lot of things. I hope I have some more to learn. To win one day, there's a bit I can work on, so we will see."
For Gall, who pipped Seixas to the line to take the runner-up spot, Monday's result was confirmation of what he said pre-race: that even though he's not here building into the Giro d'Italia, as many are, that's of no detriment to his level.
"Of course, I'm happy with the start of this race. In the final, it would have been nice to have a bit of a higher pace for me, but Ciccone has a good punch," he conceded.
Apart from Ciccone, the Austrian is the second-biggest winner on GC, taking bonus seconds on rival Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and actual seconds on Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), who both conceded time in the punchy, uphill finish.
