Paul Seixas does indeed have nerves of steel. Already, at 19 years old. The little French cycling prodigy took on the queen stage of the Tour of the Basque Country this Friday, in Eibar, by sprinting ahead of his biggest rival in this race, the German Florian Lipowitz. His third victory of the week, and the promise of a final coronation on Saturday which will cause a lot of noise.
In this 176 km long stage with eight passes on the program, including three first category, Seixas ran like the great he is becoming. While Lipowitz (3rd overall) launched hostilities from the foot of the very difficult Krabelin pass, 70 km from the finish, announcing a major Bora offensive also with Primoz Roglic (2nd overall), the Frenchman never panicked. It was he who took matters into his own hands to jump into the wheel, then bring the duo back to the morning breakaway.
The Frenchman found his teammate Nicolas Prodhomme there, who then provided valuable support as he rode for nearly 30 kilometers in the valley at the head of a group of around twenty units. At the start of the Izua, the last big difficulty of the day, Seixas did it alone like a grown-up, before responding to Lipowitz’s new attack. The two men, definitely the strongest in this Tour of the Basque Country, covered the last 30 kilometers together before competing for victory in the streets of Eibar.
Last walk in the rain
Faster, the rider from the Decathlon CMA CGM team took the opportunity to raise his arms once again. “I’m happy to win, I wanted to finish the job for the team, which was super strong all day,” he reacted a few minutes later on Eurosport. The stage was really hard, at certain moments I was a little shaken, really really bad. I felt that the legs were coming back at the end, so much the better. »
The Lyonnais continues to impress. After this new demonstration of strength, he is installed with a very comfortable mattress in the general classification, since Lipowitz is at 2’30 and Roglic at 3’40. Monstrous gaps, while we are still talking about the third (and white jersey) of the last Tour de France and a four-time Grand Tour winner. It now remains for Seixas to successfully negotiate the last stage, these 135 km hilly between Goizper-Anzuola and Bergara, to add his name to the list of winners of this prestigious race.
Our file on Paul Seixas
Apart from the rain forecast on the road, it’s not clear what could prevent it. “We will have to be attentive, stay focused throughout,” projects the yellow jersey. Nothing is finished, the other runners are very strong. » But not as much as him, they are all aware of it. Saturday evening, barring an accident, French cycling will have its first winner of a World Tour stage race for nineteen years, and the victory of Christophe Moreau on the Dauphiné. Afterwards, it will already be time to think about this meeting with Tadej Pogacar on Liège-Bastogne-Liège, at the end of the month. You have to get used to it, everything goes very quickly with Paul Seixas.
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