French prodigy Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) had to settle for second at the Grand Prix de Montréal, but was menacingly confident that he could learn from Sunday's race and come back even better in two weeks, to hopefully win the World Championships.
Seixas was in the winning move in the Grand Prix, but was just beaten by his attack companion Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in the uphill sprint to the line, slightly mistiming his sprint.
But rather than rue any mistakes or the near-miss, the 19-year-old star was clear that a learning opportunity was exactly what he needed from Sunday's race, and in fact it's only made him more confident for Worlds.
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"I was wondering how I should manage the situation to maybe win, but of course, also I don't want to play all my cards before the Worlds, I want to keep some things in my mind that I should do [better]," he explained.
"I wanted to try in the end on the last climb, but I was not having the legs to jump him, and also I was not smart enough to be in [Del Toro's] wheel before the climb. He was really smart today, he rode better than me for sure, and I should improve this. You see it also on Quebec, I was doing really some efforts everywhere, but not really good tactics, so maybe I should work on this.
"But I was here to make mistakes to see how it goes, and of course I have some things in the back of my mind to keep to the Worlds. If you play all your cards today, the adversity [opposition] knows, so I need to keep some in my mind."
Physically, Seixas didn't feel at his best for the whole day, struggling at one point not with his legs but with his heart rate, but he found his rhythm as the race got harder.
"It's a really hard course, and the race was really hard. It was what I expected and what I was hoping for, a big rhythm far from the finish," he said. "At first I was not feeling really well, but the power is here, I was a bit fresh, maybe I didn't do enough work in the last days. But then I was feeling great, and I hope the form will grow until the World Championships, but for the moment it seems really good."
At the end of a year that saw him finish fourth in his debut Tour de France, Seixas' confidence is already flying pretty high, and despite ultimately being defeated on Sunday, that result in a Worlds dress rehearsal has only actually boosted his belief that he can fight for the rainbow jersey.
"Definitely, it gives me confidence. Today, I feel like I have the legs to fight for the win, that's what I was hoping for and what I've been working towards since the Tour, so it's very good news for me," he said.
"I think it was a really good exercise for me to work on my punch, and that's where I need to improve for Worlds, but it shows I have the legs to fight for the win.
"Now there are two weeks left to keep working, to make progress. There are other guys who are very solid. We saw that Isaac was very strong, Remco was very strong too. We'll see how they prepare for the World Championships."
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