As the youngest-ever winner of La Flèche Wallonne, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) has set up a mouth-watering Liège-Bastogne-Liège face-off with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) this Sunday.
Seixas became only the second rider in history to win the mid-week Ardennes Classic on debut, after Marc Hirschi, with his team putting on a masterclass and making the race hard, before he scorched his way up the Mur de Huy in the third fastest time ever.
Even his own team staff are running out of words for what he is doing at 19 years of age. After all, it even took Pogačar four attempts to conquer La Flèche Wallonne. They're getting more excited by the race day for Seixas' prospects, and why shouldn't they?
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"What can't Paul Seixas do? I don't know, but I do know that we will mainly enjoy this victory," said Sports Director Julien Jurdie to Sporza at the team bus in Huy.
"We had hoped for this [result] this morning. We knew that Paul was in very good form and we naturally realize that he is an extraordinary talent. That is why we wanted to race as the favorite, as a big team with a true leader.
"Paul finished it off magically. That he does this at 19 is incredible. He is a great champion like Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel, men who can win stage races and one-day races. The future looks bright for him."
Jurdie didn't hold back with his praise of the young French star, who will start only his second Monument at Liège-Bastogne-Liège – a race he won as a junior two years ago – as one of the favourites and the rider most expected to follow Pogačar's inevitable attacks.
He's seen big stars come through Decathlon CMA CGM's various iterations over the 20 years he's worked for the team as a DS, but none were like Seixas.
Jurdie admitted there was serious stress in the Decathlon team car on Wednesday, because "we wanted to race as the top favorite. But Paul does everything so naturally".
"I have been a team manager for 25 years, but this is the best rider I have ever worked with. Romain Bardet gave me goosebumps back then, but I have never seen anything like this myself. This was a masterclass, pure class."
Speaking before his incredible performance, Seixas was already being asked about the prospect of challenging three-time Liège winner Pogačar and two-time champion Evenepoel, but, with his head screwed on, he was cautious to overestimate his abilities for the much harder course and with much stronger opposition.
"That is a crazy question," he said, in response to whether he was the World Champion's main rival. "We are talking about perhaps the best rider of all time here.
"I currently do not have the level to beat Pogačar. But I do train to become the best. And you have to work for that and then prove yourself in races."
Having proved himself today on the vicious slopes of the Mur de Huy, he still kept that caution, knowing full well the different beast represented by Pogačar, from whom he felt the full brunt at Strade Bianche, where he impressed in second, but could only follow him momentarily.
"It's going to be a whole different ball game, as they say," said Seixas. "But I'm definitely going to fight to try and be as good as possible. But today shows that I'm in good shape."
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