After barely being able to stand at the finish of Saturday's extraordinary stage, Paul Seixas has reported for the start of the final stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Despite his bloodied act of defiance on Saturday, there were fears that Seixas might not see the race through to the end, once the adrenaline wore off and his injuries caught up with him.
However, those fears were allayed on Sunday morning, and in swashbuckling style.
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"Don't worry," Seixas said as he was filmed walking from his hotel to his team bus on Sunday morning. "I'll be at the start."
Someone then asks Seixas directly if he'll be setting off again, to which, climbing onto the bus, he replies: "Always. We don't give up."
Seixas staged a stunning fightback from an early crash on Saturday's penultimate stage, somehow plugging a four-minute gap during a furious 60km chase with his teammates, and then fighting to seventh on the summit finish despite barely being able to hold the handlebars.
Footage at the finish showed Seixas limping to the podium to collective his combativity award, but not before he had to be hauled to his feet by his father.
He said he suffered abrasions to both arms and legs but indicated that his hands took the brunt of the fall as he slid face first onto the tarmac.
Sunday's finale is an explosive brute, measuring just 120km but packing in four major mountain ascents before finishing at the Plateau de Solaison.
More to follow
