Tadej who? Paul Seixas mania is gripping the home nation ahead of the Tour de France, and the 19-year-old is fully embracing it

Tadej who? As the days count down to the start of the Tour de France, the home nation does not seem to care about Tadej Pogačar dominating the sport and possibly winning the Tour for a historic fifth time. Instead, Paul Seixas-mania is in full flow, the hype train travelling like a TGV between Barcelona and Paris.

The 19-year-old super talent is on the cover of Thursday's L'Equipe sports newspaper and all over their website and social media, with a three-page interview and a special documentary video.

Swiss newspaper Les Temps compared Seixas to footballer Kylian Mbappé and NBA basketball player Victor Wembanyama, part of a generation of French sports stars that are inspiring a nation and used by French president Emmanuel Macron for a sports-power political play.

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Paris Match magazine has reportedly tried to interview Seixas' mother at the gates of the school where she teaches, biographies on the 19-year-old are already being written, and publishers are trying to buy every photograph of when Seixas won races as a schoolboy.

Everyone would love to have Seixas' possible mobile number, but he prefers to spend time with friends on Snapchat rather than talk to his team management on WhatsApp.

Daniel Benson recently reported on his Substack that Pinarello-Q36.5 are ready to make him the highest-paid rider in the sport when his contract with Decathlon CMA CGM ends in 2027. Other sources are convinced he will join UAE Team Emirates-XRG as Pogačar's heir, while Decathlon and CMA CGM are determined to hold on to him.

Seixas travelled to Barcelona on Tuesday and enjoyed his first training ride with his Decathlon teammates on Wednesday. The L'Equipe interview was done as Seixas travelled to the airport to fly to Spain. Every moment of his life for the next three weeks will be controlled and scheduled around the pain and intensity of racing his first-ever Tour de France.

Yet Seixas seems unperturbed and still in control of his life, unsure of what the next three weeks will bring and how fighting for victory at the Tour could change his life. For every probing question from L'Equipe, Seixas has a simple, sincere answer that reflects his natural confidence and pragmatic approach to life and racing the Tour.

"I wouldn't say my life changed that much. I don't even know if I'd say it changed at all," Seixas said of the impact of his decision to ride the Tour at just 19.

"This pressure, which is actually quite positive, is something I put on myself enough. I don't take on other people's pressure; it's my own. I'm often quite ambitious, I have my own ideas about what I want to do and how I want to do it, and that's pressure enough as it is."

Seixas will be the youngest rider to debut at the Tour since 1937 and is more than two years younger than any other rider in the race. Yet he is dismissive of the hyperbole, the statistics and the expectations.

"For me, it's simply a childhood dream come true. I'm incredibly happy to be going to the Tour," Seixas said.

"I keep telling myself that I have to enjoy it, even though it's a very tough, very difficult race. It will be a good experience. I'm coming with the idea that it remains a childhood dream and that I have to make the most of it."

Being so young, Seixas' first memory of the Tour is from 2013 when Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana raced up Mont Ventoux, and 2014, when Jean-Christophe Péraud and Thibaut Pinot finished second and third behind Vincenzo Nibali.

"My best friend, Cyprien, and I, when we were younger, talked a lot about the Tour, saying how amazing it must be to ride it," he said.

"Now I'm the one who's going to start this race. It's an incredible opportunity, I really understand that. I'm super motivated and happy to be able to fulfil this childhood dream.

"I've only just realised, in the last few days, that it's really going to happen, that I'm really going to be at the starting line. It's incredible!"

Seixas is aware that the French public will cheer for him as he takes on Tadej Pogačar, just as they are cheering on the French football team in the FIFA World Cup.

Seixas shrugs off the pressure but seems to want to pay back their French fans for their support. He has the natural confidence in his ability that Pinot and other recent French riders lacked. He really does seem the best French talent since the last men's French Tour winner, Bernard Hinault.

"I have to find a balance between thrilling the crowds and managing my own effort. But at some point, I'll have to give it my all. I hope to excite the fans and, above all, perform well for myself," he said.

"I know the Tour is very important to my grandparents, but I also know it's very important to all French people. They want to see the best riders from their country at the start of this race, and I think I'm one of them today. I hope to thrill the French this summer."

French cycling fans held their breath when Seixas crashed hard at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in mid-June, fearing his Tour chances had ended before they started. He suffered nasty road rash on his arm and hurt his knee but was able to train in the Alps in recent weeks.

"When I crashed, I immediately saw that the wounds were superficial, so I didn’t think beyond the crash. I was more worried about my knee. But an MRI scan quickly reassured me; there was just significant swelling, nothing broken," he said.

"Rest assured, everything is fine, I'm really in great shape. I feel very good."

Decathlon delayed naming their final Tour squad and eventually opted to include sprinter Olav Kooij, who has recovered from an early-season virus. His presence will help ease the pressure on Seixas' wide but young shoulders, but he remains ambitious, no doubt targeting the GC without saying it specifically.

"The fact that Olav is here and that there's a small sprint contingent on the team gives me an interesting dual objective; it also takes some of the pressure off," he said.

"Olav is a good guy. He's also motivated by the general classification project and will help me when he can, when it's convenient for him, in addition to his sprints. It's complementary.

"The goal is to achieve the best possible overall result, to learn, to see where I stand as the days go by. And above all, to see how I feel over three weeks."

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